In recent years, with the continuous progress of automotive science and technology, discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of physical keys and touch operations often appear in the network.
Not long ago, Hyundai publicly admitted that it was a mistake to integrate too many functions on the touch screen, and said the upcoming Ioniq 6 electric car would be equipped with a center console with physical buttons.
The move once again drew public attention to the topic of physical keystrokes and touch operations.
Nowadays, more and more car companies are designing many functions of new models as touch operation, which does look high-end, but one of the reasons behind it is actually related to cost.
Some people may say that the cost of those touch panels and large touch screens in the car should be higher, right? Take the touch screen as an example, the early input cost will indeed be higher, but this kind of screen can be universal.
Now the touch screens of the models under the major car brands are exactly the same, coupled with the gradual growth of sales.
This forms a “scale effect”.
After the cost is shared equally, it is not so high.
While the physical keys are completely different, each additional button requires the supplier to re-open the mold, but also to consider the circuit problem.
the production stage needs to be manually assembled one by one, which is time-consuming, laborious and costly.
Another reason comes from the product design level.
The placement and sequence of the physical buttons and the matching with the overall interior style all require designers to think hard, and even if the models under the same brand have different interior styles, the design of the physical buttons must also need to be adjusted.
Relatively speaking, the touch screen is much easier, no matter what type of interior design, a large screen can remain the same.
Car companies certainly enjoy the fact that they can not only save costs, but also shorten the design cycle.
Of course, car companies’ enthusiasm for touch operation also has a lot to do with marketing strategies.
The fierce market competition makes the domestic automobile market extremely “internal”, so it is particularly important to highlight product differentiation to attract the attention of target groups.
As a result, some car companies have come up with the idea of operating the functions in the car, for example, the touch screen with a higher degree of integration, the whole car needs to be operated by screen touch except the emergency flasher.
Of course, this kind of design will attract the attention of consumers, but it is not really easy to use, so different people have different opinions.
The physical button should be canceled? As a matter of fact, Tesla actually played a leading role in canceling physical buttons, and later many car companies were “following suit”, so that many consumers subconsciously thought that extreme simplification was beauty.
But is what Tesla has to do right? Everything has its two sides, and the issue of whether to cancel physical buttons has been the focus of debate not only in the industry, but also in the consumer community.
The positive side’s view is very clear that the automobile manufacturers are changing the functional operation of the car to the touch form, which represents the development trend in the future.
The function of physical button control is limited, and it is far less advanced than the highly integrated touch operation.
It is a product of the fuel truck era, and now it has lagged behind and can not attract young consumers.
In addition, after using the physical button for a period of time, it will bring abnormal noise problems and affect the driving mood.
Proponents of canceling physical buttons argue that things that lag behind should be eliminated, just as Apple’s iPhone replaced Nokia.
As for the positive point of view, the opposite side hit back at the cancellation of the physical button, arguing that the situation of cars and mobile phone products is different, and that the former is related to the safety of life and property.
If the functional operation of the car is changed to touch, the driver can not achieve blind operation, which will inevitably lead to distraction in the driving process and easily lead to traffic accidents.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 80% of crashes and 65% of nearby crashes are related to distracted driving.
Just like playing a game console, it is operated with a handle, the physical keys above can be operated blindly, and the eyes only need to stare at the computer or TV screen.
Just imagine, if the handle is changed to touch operation, that pair of eyes may not be enough.
More importantly, the opposing side holds that large touch screens and touch panels all belong to the category of electronic products, which are not perfect in terms of reliability, and have a high probability of failure, coupled with the characteristics of high integration.
May bring security risks.
This is supported by the statistical data of the car quality net.
From January to November 2024, the cumulative number of complaints about “audio-visual system failures” was 8053, of which the proportion of complaints related to central control screen crashes and black screens accounted for about 16.1%. An increase of 6.
6 percentage points over the same period last year.
In addition, the reason why many people oppose the cancellation of physical buttons has something to do with the “excessive” design of some car companies.
In order to take the lead in the fierce market competition, some car companies begin to “design for the sake of design”, complicating simple functional operations.
For example, some car companies change the window adjustment button into a touch bar and operate the window up and down by sliding their fingers.
In the process of driving a vehicle, the driver has to determine which touch bar controls which window first, and then adjust it, which is not only tedious to operate, but also easy to be distracted.
A more typical example is to cancel the rearview mirror adjustment button and use the central control screen + steering wheel touchpad operation instead.
The proper exertion is too strong, which turns the advantage of the original operation into a disadvantage.
Physical buttons and touch operations have their own advantages.
For physical buttons, although they are the product of the era of fuel cars, you can say that they are not good-looking, but there is no doubt about their practicality in the process of vehicle driving.
In 2022, Vi Bilgare, a Swedish auto magazine, tested the engine systems of 12 different brands of cars that year, including a Volvo V70 produced in 2005 without a central control screen.
The test involves letting the same driver perform the same functional tasks on different vehicles, such as adjusting air conditioners, when the vehicle is driving at a speed of 110km / h.
The test results came as a surprise to many.
The Volvo V70 scored the best, completing four functions in 10 seconds, while the slowest car took 44.
6 seconds.
It is not difficult to find that physical buttons are not “useless” for vehicle function control, and they also have incomparable advantages over touch operation.
The reason is simple: physical buttons are more reliable, and that is,That is, models of different brands, whose position and shape are basically fixed, are not prone to misoperation.
For example, the rearview mirror adjustment button, which is placed on the handrail of the door panel on the side of the driver’s seat, can be operated smoothly even with closed eyes.
In addition, the physical keys are operated with tactile feedback, so that people can directly know whether the functional operation is completed or not.
For touch operation, the reason why car companies can gradually replace physical buttons with it, the advantage is also obvious, that is integration.
Now the car has more and more functions, often dozens of functions, and physical buttons correspond to a single function, if these functions are operated by physical buttons, it is obviously not realistic, and there is not so much space in the car to layout.
The integrated advantages of touch operation can be highlighted at this time.
Take the large touch screen as an example, the number of functions that can be carried can be many, and dozens of functions may be completely covered by 1 or 2 pages.
The other is the intuitive operation, compared with the cold physical keys, the touch screen can achieve “WYSIWYG” in the functional operation.
For example, the air conditioning wind direction adjustment, in the screen can clearly see the change of the wind direction, but also can be stepless adjustment, you can more accurately obtain the desired blowing angle.
Physical buttons and touch operations should complement each other and are indispensable.
Of course, it does not mean that the more physical buttons, the better.
With the progress of the times and the development of automotive technology, there is nothing wrong with properly streamlining.
But at least some commonly used functional buttons should be retained.
Such as seat heating / ventilation, window lifting and mirror adjustment, these daily high-frequency functions, the operation must be simple and efficient.
If it’s all integrated into a big touch screen, it may take a few steps just to find this function.
Touch operation is also important for the function of the vehicle.
After all, with the rapid development of automobile technology, more and more functions are given to the vehicle, and it is impossible to carry all of them by relying solely on physical buttons.
In fact, physical keystrokes and touch operations do not conflict, each has the value of existence, and the two should coexist harmoniously.
For example, the rearview mirror adjustment, you should use the physical button, because in the adjustment process, your line of sight is focused on the rearview mirror lens, at this time must carry on the blind operation.
As for the low-frequency functions used in the car, it is not necessary to design each as a physical button, which can be integrated in the touch screen or a touch panel, which not only saves space but also does not affect the functional operation.
In other words, although the development of automotive technology is changing with each passing day, for the functional operation of vehicles, only when the technology is used in the right place can it provide value and give users a good experience, otherwise it will lose its meaning.
Xiaomi, which is particularly popular this year, has its own way of dealing with this.
Also a high-tech intelligent car, Xiaomi SU7 does not take the minimalist route like Tesla’s models, but at the behest of Lei Jun, it retains some commonly used physical keys in the car to ensure the use of high-frequency functions.
Prior to this, Lei Jun specially stressed at the product introduction meeting of Xiaomi SU7 that “you can’t learn from Tesla to do full touch control, physical keys must be reserved.
” Conclusion: looking to the future, at least until autopilot technology is fully mature and popular, physical buttons will not disappear completely and will coexist with touch operations such as touch screens and touch panels.
it may appear in a simpler and fashionable way.
And these are the questions that designers need to think about.
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