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307 points MBCook | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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bunderbunder ◴[] No.42151125[source]
I'd love to see some sort of multiple regression or ANOVA on this, instead of singling out a single variable. Is car brand really the best independent predictor? Or is it specific design decisions you tend to see in certain brands?

(Like, say, maximizing driver distraction by consolidating a bunch of essential controls and information displays into a touchscreen display that's really difficult to operate when it's sunny outside. Just to pick something at random, of course.)

Somewhat related, I was recently shopping for refrigerators, and fell down a data rabbit hole. If you just look at the overall style of fridge, French doors look like a terrible option from a reliability perspective. But then, digging in a bit more, it turns out that's kind of a spurious correlation. Actually it's the presence of bells and whistles like through-door ice dispensers that kill a refrigerator's reliability. And then perhaps on top of that the amount of extra Rube Goldberg machine you need to make a chest height ice dispenser work in a bottom-freezer French door refrigerator creates even more moving parts to break. But a those problems don't apply to a model that doesn't have that feature.

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aziaziazi ◴[] No.42151753[source]
> essential controls

Can’t you drive a Tesla without it? I expect the screen was for radio, gps, AC…

I agree those are distracting through.

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jvanderbot ◴[] No.42151789[source]
Rent a Tesla and try to adjust the mirrors while driving I dare you.

Less difficult but much more common:

Change the radio station / music.

Change the climate control.

Both of those require taking your eyes off the road and navigating through multiple touch screen-only modal windows. I have owned one for years and it is a distraction factory.

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1. buffington ◴[] No.42152726[source]
All of these things can be done without looking if you use voice commands. They can be done with a scroll wheel/button as well if you spend five minutes, once, to set your preferences for what the wheel controls.

That said, I hate the touch screen only UI of my car. There are times when I can't use voice or the scroll wheel and want (not so much need) to do something with the menus. In most cars, it's trivial to do most things by feel if you know where the buttons are.

Even if you could get really good at only touching the "right" place on the touch screen, one software update can change things enough to where it's now accessed differently.