Are touchscreens in cars dangerous?

I would support legislation which disables the touch screen when the passenger seat is unoccupied and the vehicle is in motion.

But I admit I’m being selfish: I don’t drive but share the road with people who do.

I would not.

I would support legislation that forced a recall of all defective cars (ones that required touchscreens to do basic car things).

Yeah, the passenger seat is a problem. I've been very annoyed with my phone before for locking out when my car is in motion--even when I'm not the one handling the phone.

I would support that, as long as it specified all new cars (not existing ones).

I drive a car with a touchscreen. Obviously, I'm not touching it in motion otherwise my position would be dumb… sometimes it does dumb things and I'll just have to ignore it for the drive or find a parking space to stop and deal with it.

One not-so-fun place this could go is mandatory voice recognition commands, leading to everything said in the car being recorded and stored by the manufacturers.

What phone doesn’t let you operate it while in a moving car? I’ve never heard of this.

Modern mazdas are one example - the touchscreen locks out above 5 miles per hour.

This is only feasible because the physical controls are excellent, and you can basically accomplish anything except typing an address or a song name without the touchscreen as input.

We just have zero reasons to have touch screens in cars. They need to be removed, not restricted.

I have a new Mazda with CarPlay, you can touch the phone at any time? Or are you referring to the "extra" touchscreen on some models in addition to the control knob.

iOS has had this feature for several versions now, I think it predates focus modes even. But today it lives under that umbrella as the Driving focus, which can activate automatically based on certain kinds of detected motion.

Mazdas do lock the screen when in motion.

Actions can be accomplished using a 'big knob' button that can be turned or pressed. The driver can still distract themselves, but I believe it's to a lesser extent that the touch screen.

I do not like touch screens, in general. I do not drive a car, but as a passenger I have found some functions (but not all functions) locked while the car is moving, even though it could sometimes be helpful for the passenger to operate it (or read it out loud) for the driver so that the driver does not have to (although this is only because the driver wanted me to do it; I otherwise have no use for them). However, physical controls would be better.

I'm pretty sure no phone does this on its own - if it did, people on public transport would have complaints.

It is probably a setting on your phone (driving mode, perhaps) or a setting when you pair it with your car.

> We just have zero reasons to have touch screens in cars

A good sign you’re missing something is when you see zero reason for another’s effort.

Touch screens are a cheap, adaptable UI. They simplify supply chains and allow for a richer variety of context-dependent controls. The map on a properly designed touch screen absolutely renders less useful a phone for navigation, which in turn removes a host of potential distractions from the game.

Touch screens should be an option for car designers and buyers. But they should be done safely.

Personal anecdote: I have mazda and tesla and drive both regularly. I’ve got many more times distracted with mazda knob trying to turn on album than doing the same in tesla. I used to think knob is safer until I started to see difference every day.

Also, IIRC the latest version of their best selling car - the CX-5, abandons the knob for pure touchscreen.

Supposedly the story is that outside of a small but vocal contingent on the Internet, most buyers did not like the knob.

Not necessarily a 'phone' but an 'app'; Here WeGo often won't let you pick a route for a destination you looked up if you're moving... I say 'often' because it seems to have a mood where sometimes it works but other times it literally shows a sort of 'cannot do this while vehicle is in motion' blocker...

The newest CX-5, their best selling car, abandons the knob, if that’s what you’re referring to.

Supposedly most buyers in fact, did not like the knob.

This seems to follow other manufacturers that formerly had knob based controls but similarly abandoned them.

For what it’s worth, my phone (iPhone SE 3) DOES do the lock up when I’m on the public bus, requiring me to tap “I’m not driving.”

You literally can turn this off in the settings. You have it set to enable driving mode automatically.

Might I recommend you the Lexus touchpad? Yes, touchpad. Like on your laptop.

I had that on for 1 or 2 years and given up. Thanks for reminding me, it's a nightmare that makes using your phone less safe.

Voice recognition might be the only UI worse for safety and usability than a touchscreen for normal driving operations.

Not that you're wrong about the privacy angle either.

In the MY2026 CX-5 (announced in July), the control knob went the same way as BMW's iDrive jog control: it's gone.

That is so sad. The knob on my CX30 is such a favourite feature for me that I want to rule out car models that don't have a physical input in that location.

Sad to hear that I'm in a minority for loving that input.

Where is that located in the car? Near the gear stick I assume?

Does it move a mouse pointer on the screen?

My 2025 CX50 has excellent input controls. It's almost like using a mouse on the center console. Once you realize the home, back button, scroll and enter button are all within a fingers reach, it's very intuitive. It took about five minutes to master it when I first got the car and I realized how it worked.

On my car, the touchscreen only works when Android Auto or Apple CarPlay are enabled. I'm assuming all newer models are the same. There are lots of audio control built in the steering wheel too. I don't find any of it distracting.

Unfortunately you can’t use the ‘big knob’ without looking at the screen, which is entirely self defeating.

You can actually make such 3D display that has left and right eyeball locations configured to correspond to left and right seats, and blank the driver's side channel so that the driver can't interact but the passenger could. It was briefly tried on few Japanese head units during 2000s, and then abandoned. Some Volkswagen-Audi cars emulate this feature for the optional secondary infotainment unit using a static privacy filter.

There are different versions of it. Sometimes it's more akin to the Mazda wheel, but sometimes the navigation...

https://youtu.be/AF7YZHmMSzg?list=PLVornlshk2uo7s9MkRROCpNVg...

Paired with the car.

I recently discovered that iOS supports both: you can have it detect driving by Bluetooth pairing or by motion (or disable it).

I wonder if it's buyers (which I would find mildly surprising) or potential buyers (which wouldn't surprise me at all)?

My 2012 Range Rover has this to allow the passenger to watch TV while the driver still sees the normal menu. Works surprisingly well.

Why? Talking won't prevent you focusing on the road?

Because voice recognition is horribly imprecise. If you're controlling essential functions for driving then you need controls that are efficient, predictable, and reliable.

Sounds like a implementation problem, not a problem with voice control.

We have a 20 old navi with voice control. You can't just say free form things, but it's very deterministic. Most commands you want to say aren't free form, so this doesn't really matter. It also confirms everything, so it will never do something without you knowing. It also has the best voice I got to know. Natural, precise, short AND friendly; no clue why all these modern voices with way more compute all sound like garbage.

Yes: attempting to have conversation is found to diminish focus on driving to a large extent — I remember seeing a study on this, and can vouch with personal experience.

Yes, you can do most of the driving, but "at the edges", when quicker reaction time is needed, it becomes noticeable. Similar to, ahem, drunk driving, though obviously, not as bad, and you can stop a conversation whenever needed.

Obviously, talking to a computer in your car would be less taxing than to a person, but when it misrecognizes the input, it might be the opposite.