I only skimmed the article, and I've only driven a Tesla (Model S) for a day, so my review/comments might be incomplete, but I almost completely disagree with this article.
1. I love the size and quality of the touch screen. Nothing in other cars compares. Usually screens are small, low resolution, require forceful touch or aren't touch. (Recent issues with screens failing in heat are a big minus, but I'm sure technology will improve soon.)
2. I barely use any of the "buttons" (or other controls) while driving. I almost always use the same temperature, and usually set it when I get in. Same with navigation destination. Edit: In any case, I think the big safety risk is using central controls at all, regardless whether they're touch-screen or physical buttons.
3. Most controls that you use while driving should be placed on the steering wheel - things like music/radio and cruise control. I don't recall how it was in Model S, but many other cars have this, so I consider it a solved problem.
4. Reverse video camera, in most cars, automatically starts when you start reversing (I don't remember reversing in Model S so maybe they didn't do implement this yet). As this requires the car to come to a stop, even pressing some obscure button can't be "unsafe", at most a nuisance.
5. Some controls are important and are usually not on the steering wheel - things like lock/unlock car doors, and the 4 blinkers button. I think these would best be placed on the driver's door, or alternatively on the top of the center console (above the screen) so that the passenger can also access them.
6. I don't use lane assist, and I'm not sure whether having it is a great idea... people might come to rely on it and thus become worse drivers on their own. It's often implemented as a light in the side mirror, which I personally dislike - the implementation is bad (false positives, or turns on when I'm not changing lane) and the light flashing at the edge of my viewing field distracts me from the road ahead, so I always want to turn it off. I think a useful UI would be, to change the sound that the blinkers make, if the car detects an obstacle on the side.
To conclude, I can't wait until big touch screens are adopted by other car manufacturers and most other buttons are removed.
For older cars that might be true, but just for example - newest BMWs have more PPI (1920x720 @ 12.3") than Tesla screens (1920x1200 @ 17"). Size is subjective. Personally, i like to feel actual buttons and from time to time i am using them while driving, although mostly related to climate (ventilated / heated seats, blast AC when the car is hot and then turn it off etc.)
I believe those lights on mirrors are really called blind spot monitor not lane assist, my car has them (with lane assist warning which vibrates the steering wheel) i can't remember if i ever got a false positive and i like them. The fact is that you still have to look at your mirrors, those lights just give additional information which is a plus.
At the end of the day i don't really see a point of having a huge screen in your car unless you spend an insane amount of time just sitting in the car and not driving.
P.S. Tesla has no HUD option which i find absolutely idiotic.
1. Agreed. The size is extremely nice, and the resolution is high enough that you aren't squinting at the screen. I can see what I need at a glance.
2. Agreed. The only controls I use are switching between Spotify and Bluetooth, and this is rare enough that I can do it at a stop. If you are constantly playing with the temperature, you're doing it wrong.
3. On the Model S this is true. On the Model 3 I haven't found if it's possible to control the fan from the steering wheel. That'd be nice to have, and remove my most common touches. I like the auto fan speed, but it's noisy over 5, so I'd like to set a cap, which is why I'll mess with fan speed.
4. It's automatic on both. You can manually leave it on. My wife does this in the Model S because she keeps a screen on the back window (to keep the kids from overheating in the third row) and can't see as well because of that, so she uses it as her rear view mirror. I think it's crazy distracting.
5. The doors would be more intuitive for the lock/unlock, but the screen placement is reasonable. I don't want my passenger messing with my hazard lights. The glove compartment opener is hard to find on the Model 3 compared to the Model S (if you want your passenger going in there).
6. I don't really use it either. When I want to change lanes (or the car asks to change lanes) I visually check first. Anyone who's driven one for more than a few minutes knows not to trust the screen, so it kind of fades into the background.
I agree with the conclusion. I've driven a bunch of rentals lately, and some of them were completely absurd. A 2018 Mercedes had 4 buttons, 4 up/down toggles, 2 scroll wheels, and 2 little nubbins that could be swiped in any of 4 directions or clicked, all on the steering wheel. I counted 26 possible interactions. But on the whole, the little grubby touchscreens in other cars are all sorts of terrible.
If you feel this positively about the touchscreen, then having only a day's worth of driving experience might be a point in favor of Tesla's implementation. My reflexive skepticism re: a touchscreen interface would be how unintuitive and unfamiliar (and likely obfuscated) the controls would feel in comparison to the physical interface I've used my entire life.
On the other hand I grew up with technology and I'm a total geek, so computerized interfaces are in general more "intuitive" (i.e. I grokk them faster because of extensive experience) for me than for most (especially older) people... Also my vision is 20/20 so I might be less impacted by the low resolution/contrast issues highlighted in the article.
The problem with touchscreens in the car isn't understanding them, it's the fact you have to take your attention away from the road in order to use them.
Of course everything is matter of preferences, but for me jus having such a huge display in the middle of the dashboard is a distraction, that leaving aside the fact that aesthetically is totally out of place and not even very well integrated, the UI is made to look edgy instead of functional (tiny minimallistic icons). To me the whole thing is there just to add wow factor without adding any extra benefit for the user.
I am just replying to add some clarification on points you were uncertain about. These comments go for Model S and X; there are some slight differences with Model 3 since the AP and drive selector stalks are merged.
2. Climate control maps to the right-hannd steering wheel scroll wheel by default, so you don't need to take your hands off the wheel o change temp or turn it on or off.
3. Music is on the left wheel control; play/pause, volume, and next/prev buttons. Cruise and AP are on the stalk.
4. Reverse cam comes up along with the ultrasonic sensor distance view (and Autopark UI) when changing to reverse. I can't help but add my wishlist item to have the two side cams also display in this view or Tesla to do the pseudo-360 view.
5. Central door locks on tesla are quite a bit smarter than in many other cars, so I find I generally don't have to use the lock control all, but when it's needed, it's a soft button at the top of the screen. The car auto locks/unlocks the doors with the drive selector and further, when the doors are locked and the car is moving, they cannot be opened accidentally. Hazard control is a physical button to the left of the screen which is a good decision.
6. Tesla's lane assist features are actually relatively new, and they are doing some pretty interesting things-- most interestingly if the AP system is pretty damn sure the lane change is a bad idea it will as of the latest software raise audible alarms and the steering motor will actively resist the wheel movement. That is the most important thing IMO because the real problems happen when the driver changes lanes without awareness, and while the lane change indicators might catch the drivers attention moreso than a car in the blind spot, an inattentive driver might not be paying attention to any of that. For this reason too I believe the mirror indicators in other cars are stupid. My line of reasoning is that if I am looking in the side mirror, I shouldn't need the indicator. But then again most people have their side mirrors set up to look too close to their car and create huge blind spots.
Still, I can't give the whole UI a pass. There are some really egregious issues with it that as a software developer make me clench my butt a little bit. For instance on the current software release, turning the traffic overlay on absolutely kills performance because some developer made an error by specifying some timer as 200 milliseconds when it was supposed to have been 200 seconds. Notwithstanding this, the whole thing still freezes or crashes about once a week too. Like, how am I supposed to really trust the autopilot if Tesla can't even hammer out a decent and well-performing UI on top of a rock solid OS after 7 years?
1. I love the size and quality of the touch screen. Nothing in other cars compares. Usually screens are small, low resolution, require forceful touch or aren't touch. (Recent issues with screens failing in heat are a big minus, but I'm sure technology will improve soon.)
2. I barely use any of the "buttons" (or other controls) while driving. I almost always use the same temperature, and usually set it when I get in. Same with navigation destination. Edit: In any case, I think the big safety risk is using central controls at all, regardless whether they're touch-screen or physical buttons.
3. Most controls that you use while driving should be placed on the steering wheel - things like music/radio and cruise control. I don't recall how it was in Model S, but many other cars have this, so I consider it a solved problem.
4. Reverse video camera, in most cars, automatically starts when you start reversing (I don't remember reversing in Model S so maybe they didn't do implement this yet). As this requires the car to come to a stop, even pressing some obscure button can't be "unsafe", at most a nuisance.
5. Some controls are important and are usually not on the steering wheel - things like lock/unlock car doors, and the 4 blinkers button. I think these would best be placed on the driver's door, or alternatively on the top of the center console (above the screen) so that the passenger can also access them.
6. I don't use lane assist, and I'm not sure whether having it is a great idea... people might come to rely on it and thus become worse drivers on their own. It's often implemented as a light in the side mirror, which I personally dislike - the implementation is bad (false positives, or turns on when I'm not changing lane) and the light flashing at the edge of my viewing field distracts me from the road ahead, so I always want to turn it off. I think a useful UI would be, to change the sound that the blinkers make, if the car detects an obstacle on the side.
To conclude, I can't wait until big touch screens are adopted by other car manufacturers and most other buttons are removed.