Does anyone prefer the older, simpler interiors anymore?

[Squeetard]

One tech advance I love is the HUD in my 2012 Camaro. Primarily shows the speed and rpm, and turn signals. But when you start doing things like change the radio or turn up the AC it switches and tells you what you are doing. You never have to take your eyes off the road. You get a call on bluetooth and it shows the number. The rest is controlled by steering wheel buttons.

 

[Midwayman]

This is the way of the future. All the knob based interfaces like i-drive are just a technological dead end IMO. They are kind of like trackball or trackpoint mice.
Touch is the natural way humans interface.
Also, why reinvent the bicycle and redesign the user interface for every vehicle like you do with physical buttons. With touchscreen, you just keep improving the software, and keep the tooling and hardware simple.

Sure, if you're talking about level 4 self driving cars. For cars you still have to control touch takes your eyes off the road. I can navigate knobs and levers blind.

 

[nageov3t]

Sure, if you're talking about level 4 self driving cars. For cars you still have to control touch takes your eyes off the road. I can navigate knobs and levers blind.

not to mention, in gloves.

in the wintertime, I'm usually gloved for at least the first mile of my ride until my car has warmed up sufficiently.

 

[rh71]

This is the way of the future. All the knob based interfaces like i-drive are just a technological dead end IMO. They are kind of like trackball or trackpoint mice.
Touch is the natural way humans interface.
Also, why reinvent the bicycle and redesign the user interface for every vehicle like you do with physical buttons. With touchscreen, you just keep improving the software, and keep the tooling and hardware simple.

Touch screen takes too much focus away from the road. It's like punching in a new address on your handheld gps device or even zooming in our out and scrolling about while driving. Too dangerous. If you've ever used the knob in Audi/BMW/MB you would see how much less attention it takes to do something like that. The act of pointing and matching the exact point with your eyes takes to much focus in comparison.

 

[senseamp]

I would not be making investments in car knob and button manufacturers now. It's like Blackberry when iPhone came out. Cars now are designed as phones were before iPhone. Bespoke user interfaces, buttons and trackballs. The use a trackball and look at the screen instead of touching the screen was the BlackBerry approach.
Same arguments were made, how buttons and trackballs are just so much easier to use without looking, etc. There will be more voice and gesture recognition to augment the touch screen. But the buttons and knobs everywhere are a goner in not too distant future.

 

[halik]

I much preferred the knob based MMI in our old Audi rather than the touch screen mess that is in our 4Runner.

This. My parents have a touch-anything on their mkx (that is , both screen and the heater controls are touch sensitive with no clicks). It's a huge pain in the ass to use while driving.

On my S8 I can operate everything (nav/raise&lower air suspension etc) without looking, because all the buttons have clicks and the mmi wheel has detents. Same thing for my brother's BMW idrive thingy, much better for automotive application.

 

[halik]

I would not be making investments in car knob and button manufacturers now. It's like Blackberry when iPhone came out. Cars now are designed as phones were before iPhone. Bespoke user interfaces, buttons and trackballs. The use a trackball and look at the screen instead of touching the screen was the BlackBerry approach.
Same arguments were made, how buttons and trackballs are just so much easier to use without looking, etc. There will be more voice and gesture recognition to augment the touch screen. But the buttons and knobs everywhere are a goner in not too distant future.

That's a bad analogy, there's no constraint about not-looking at your fingers while operating a phone versus operating a car. Having a display volume up/down button is far far inferior compared to an actual knob.

 

[senseamp]

That's a bad analogy, there's no constraint about not-looking at your fingers while operating a phone versus operating a car. Having a display volume up/down button is far far inferior compared to an actual knob.

Volume buttons are still on the steering wheel just like there are physical volume buttons on a smartphone usually. Steering wheel is going to be the last refuge of buttons.

 

[Railgun]

This is to this day one of my favorite, if not favorite interior. It's clean, functional, tells you [almost] everything you need, and, in the earlier models, is the right night color.

My interior has a few more gauges with some other info, but generally...love it. Plus how it wraps around you...you're in a cockpit.

Current gen Audis are also up there...probably my number two.

With regards to buttons, I'm all for some in depth menus and the like in a nice display, but for common functions, give me a button, knob.