
Porsche Unveils Taycan Interior - innovateee
https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/22/inside-the-porsche-taycans-minimalist-911-inspired-interior/
======
ehnto
Nothing but touchscreens.

Ignoring the issues with safe operation of touchscreens while driving, buttons
and dials are just far more tactile and fun to use than a touchscreen. In
something like a car aimed at visceral driver experience rather than
practicality it makes even less sense. I want to feel like a fighter pilot
while driving a Porsche, not like I am installing an email app on an ipad.

~~~
paggle
If you can get to an aviation museum that lets you inside a fighter plane
cockpit the variety of buttons and levers is a real delight. Because they’re
designed for a pilot who might be flying supersonic inverted with a Russkie on
his 6 every single switch is of a slightly different position or type so they
can be distinguished by feel. Dieter Rams would barf but the functionality is
perfect.

Also, sitting in a fighter plane cockpit will make you realize how cramped and
uncomfortable it is. Not nearly as glamorous as the movies make it seem.

~~~
CamperBob2
Huh? Dieter Rams would be fine with traditional aircraft cockpit controls. His
work was strongly supportive of the notion that form should follow function.

~~~
jansan
But Luigi Colani certainly would certainly barf a lot.

~~~
CamperBob2
Yeah, I don't think that Korova Milk Bar motif of his would play well at the
Pentagon.

------
generatorguy
I am a huge fan of knobs I can feel without looking to see if I got the right
part of the smooth glass surface.

“The elevated center console stretches down from the horizontal central screen
to two air vents that are not the mechanically operated louvres found in most
vehicles today. Instead, the direction of the airflow is controlled digitally
via an 8.4-inch touch panel located just below the central screen. This touch
panel houses the climate control system and includes a track pad with haptic
feedback.”

Way to make something perfectly simple and reliable for the last 50 years in
to a pile of hot garbage.

~~~
masklinn
It needs to be said that car makers still manage to fuck up dials when leaving
them in (as digital) e.g. I was watching a car review yesterday, the "driving
mode" selector was a clicky 5-position dial (so far so good). It wouldn't
"cycle around", from the center point (normal driving) you could go two ticks
to the left or two ticks to the right, but not "through" to the bottom.
However _the dial would keep turning_ , that turning just wouldn't do anything
until you started turning the other way.

An other such experience was the same driving mode selection idea on an other
car I rented a few months back, one of the modes would (I guess) only be
available when stopped. However it would not tell you that. The dial would
still stop every 1/5th of a turn, but instead of selecting the next mode it
would select the one after that, moving the selector 1/5th ahead of the dial
every turn with no idea why the 2 stops you felt had moved the selector ahead
3 places (and to the wrong mode).

------
dirktheman
The 1989 Buick Reatta had a CRT touchscreen computer to replace the knobs for
A/C, fan speed, radio and stuff. It added no value to the experience, was
prone to malfunctioning and, subsequently, wasn't very popular. (More:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Reatta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Reatta))

Form will always follow function to some extent. I'm not saying screens are
inherently a bad thing in cars, but screens that mimic a physical button
instead of, well, physical buttons? That's just stupid.

~~~
ehnto
I found it interesting that the HUD didn't take off until recently. HUDs where
available in consumer grade cars in the 80s, but fell out of fashion the next
year mode of cars.

------
grenoire
Wow, they took _the_ touchscreen and added like, four more. Not surprised,
because electrics cars ought to have them (!), but also surprised given the
recent decision by Mazda to exclude them from future vehicles.

------
phonebucket
> Earlier this week, Porsche announced it will integrate Apple Music into the
> Taycan

I didn’t know that. I disagree with my choice of car being linked to any
specific music subscription service.

~~~
ehnto
I have always found the juxtaposition a bit funny. Car manufacturers spend
years engineering the latest release in a lineage of top of class design and
performance vehicles. Machines that are a true marvel of engineering. In this
case, a revolution in performance vehicles. But the big news is whether or not
it has a particular app.

------
notaki
Everything is easier on a large display: navigation, browsing through
music/podcasts, changing settings. Speed and range are really the only
"gauges" you need and take up very little real estate. Doesn't make much sense
to have multiple small screens you have to glance around at. Just makes
everything more difficult

------
amy_seqmedia
I hate the trend in cars that there are no or few physical buttons. Tactile
feedback is still important. It is so unsafe to take one's eyes off of the
road. At least give me some function buttons and a joystick--my current car
has that and I use it all the time.

------
gigatexal
Missing the HUD at launch.

Very much out of my price range but it’s become clear to me now that the make
or break feature for my next car will be whether or not it has Apple CarPlay
or not.

~~~
gigatexal
Wish I could go back and edit the redundant second “or not”

------
postmeta
I like how the article doesn't mention Tesla once! I wonder if that is part of
the agreement.

------
hwj
The dark mode (marketing) is neat:

> The dark mode [...] should let drivers enjoy the road and escape the
> annoying “blue light” that emanates from so many vehicles these days.

~~~
diggernet
And yet, all the accent lighting in that top photo is blue. Why not red?

------
erikpukinskis
That’s not minimalism.

~~~
new_realist
No, you get what you pay for with Porsche.

