Touchscreens are worse than drinking and driving!?

[Isaac Zachary]

Apparently highway fatalities have actually been on the rise in the last few years after decades of getting better. While I'm sure there's no one specific reason, I thought this video was interesting. It suggests that at least part of the reason may be due to car manufacturers installing touchscreens in their cars.

Apparently using Android Auto or worse yet, Apple CarPlay increases a driver's response time by about 55% (takes 55% more time to react). That's more than driving using cannabis or even drinking alcohol above the legal limit (at least to a degree) or even texting and driving!

Why Some People Hate Touch Screens

I don't like touchscreens at all, and this video caters to that feeling. I feel like unplugging the touchscreen in my Avalon. After all, the radio doesn't work anyway, so why have it. Well, I guess maybe for the backup camera.

[rmay635703]

Yes touchscreens suck especially for hvac controls in a car, no tactile feedback, time to navigate there, etc

Should just make them illegal


Accidents are also becoming more fatal which is due to speed.

[redpoint5]

Touchscreens are inferior as single function input devices... except they aren't single function, which is why they are here to stay.

The keyboard on my Blackberry phone was super functional and way better than a touch screen, but that didn't prevent phones from ditching buttons.

I proposed having a certain number of physical buttons that are programmable, so that the operator can assign the functions they find useful to them. For instance, I have no use of those worthless gimmicky sport\eco buttons. I'd rather program it to do something useful.

[JSH]

Funny how long the data lags the technology so that by the time we talk about the data it is already obsolete.

I was shocked when they said a text message on a phone takes 4.5 seconds.
How does someone one-handed type a text on a touchscreen smartphone in 4.5 seconds while driving? Especially since no-texting laws mean that people don't hold the phone on the top of the steering wheel anymore they hold it in their lap below line of sight?

Then they say a text message on a car touchscreen takes 40 seconds and navigation takes the same. My 2017 Bolt has a touchscreen and Android Auto and CarPlay. You cannot use the touchscreen to set navigation or text while moving - it simply isn't allowed. You have to use voice commands and it works well. Say where you want to go and then confirm - simple.

A text is not displayed - it is all voice:
Google: "You have a new text from Bob - do you want to hear it?"
Me: "Yes"
Google: "Message from Bob: We are running about 15 minutes late"
Google: "Would you like to respond"
Me: "Yes"
Google: "OK, speak after the tone:
Me: "Thanks for letting us know - I'll grab us a table"
Google: I heard "Thanks for letting us know - I'll grab us a table"
Google: "Send or rerecord?
Me: "Send"
Google: "Message sent"

Isaac you might feel different about a touchscreen if you lived somewhere where navigation was required every day - not to find where you are going but to see which way to go to avoid traffic. A simple fender bender can add an hour to my commute so I use google maps every day for every destination. I've long given up second guessing all-knowing Google.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by JSH

Funny how long the data lags the technology so that by the time we talk about the data it is already obsolete.

I was shocked when they said a text message on a phone takes 4.5 seconds.
How does someone one-handed type a text on a touchscreen smartphone in 4.5 seconds while driving? Especially since no-texting laws mean that people don't hold the phone on the top of the steering wheel anymore they hold it in their lap below line of sight?

Then they say a text message on a car touchscreen takes 40 seconds and navigation takes the same. My 2017 Bolt has a touchscreen and Android Auto and CarPlay. You cannot use the touchscreen to set navigation or text while moving - it simply isn't allowed. You have to use voice commands and it works well. Say where you want to go and then confirm - simple.

A text is not displayed - it is all voice:
Google: "You have a new text from Bob - do you want to hear it?"
Me: "Yes"
Google: "Message from Bob: We are running about 15 minutes late"
Google: "Would you like to respond"
Me: "Yes"
Google: "OK, speak after the tone:
Me: "Thanks for letting us know - I'll grab us a table"
Google: I heard "Thanks for letting us know - I'll grab us a table"
Google: "Send or rerecord?
Me: "Send"
Google: "Message sent"

Isaac you might feel different about a touchscreen if you lived somewhere where navigation was required every day - not to find where you are going but to see which way to go to avoid traffic. A simple fender bender can add an hour to my commute so I use google maps every day for every destination. I've long given up second guessing all-knowing Google.

In a city Google is probably up-to-date on everything. Out here it'll take you out into some field and then tell you've reached your destination. There are people that have signs on their driveways saying "Google is wrong. This is not a road."

I've never been in a situation that it makes sense to say a text. If I'm going to say something, I might as well as call. I only text if I'm in a crowd and don't want others to hear my conversation. I also don't talk on the phone while driving, so I don't see the point in talk-to-texting while driving instead. One time I tried to text on a smartphone and it called someone a uterus and I didn't realize it until the text was already sent. I'm plenty happy with my ol', basic, zero internet, flip phone. But I'm weird, what can I say.

I do like the backup camera though, and find the hybrid battery info interesting. But the same info can be brought up by the speedometer, so not that useful.

I think what's broken in my infotainment center has something to do with it's recognition of if the car is moving or not. Certain things that should work when the car is stopped don't but others that shouldn't work when the car is moving do. Others just don't work altogether. This was apparently fixed one time before I got this car according to the previous owner's notes left in the car. But it stopped working soon again soon after we got the car.

[Piwoslaw]

Just a few days ago the wife and I were pasengers in a friend's car. And she says to me: "Our next car will probably have one of those big screens".
I try not to even imagine that, though I know that I will not have a choice: I will be searching by size, fuel consumption, etc., and will grudgingly take the high-tech gizmos as unwanted necessities.
During the ride I did notice how distracting the colorful animations on the screen were, even if it was just the radio.

Two things I can do with physical pushbuttons that touchscreens won't let me:

1. Press buttons for HVAC, radio, etc., in thick winter gloves, without freezing my fingers off when the car is frozen to -20°C
2. Find the button I need just by touching the panel. After using it for a long time, I can run my finger to the correct button based on its shape/contour. I know how many times I have pressed it.

All the time I have my eyes on the road. Good luck with a touchscreen!

[Isaac Zachary]

I'll find the wire that goes to light the sucker and hook that up to only activate when the car is in park just to spite the company in my own way.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by JSH

Google: "You have a new text from Bob - do you want to hear it?"
Me: "Yes"
Google: "Message from Bob: We are running about 15 minutes late"
Google: "Would you like to respond"
Me: "Yes"
Google: "OK, speak after the tone:
Me: "Thanks for letting us know - I'll grab us a table"
Google: I heard "Thanks for letting us know - I'll grab us a table"
Google: "Send or rerecord?
Me: "Send"
Google: "Message sent"

Is this Android Auto or CarPlay?

I always tease Mom for her small child's plaything, her large child's plaything, or what she calls "Jumbo"--her iPhone, the 10" iPad I bought her for her birthday, and the 13" iPad I bought her when my employer rendered my work iPad useless.

She will ask me how to turn on the flashlight or adjust different settings and, instead of searching through foreign menus, I hold the home button and boss around Siri.

Years ago my sister drove somewhere and dictated a text much like JSH described.

My Samsung is 2 years old and I have a 50% chance of Android correctly interpreting a short text message, but I often need to fix it, which seems more distracting than writing it myself.

For example, I held down the comma, and it gave me "Free bird is a good person who usually knows what he's saying."

Well, that doesn't make any sense, but it is pretty close to what I said!

I tried again regarding a video that I am about to share. I just needed to change "Coding" to "coating," but it got 35/36 words right!

My progress reports were due tonight. I have never submitted them late, not in 7 years. I don't know how I keep getting distracted, but I'm going to claim that I've had extra difficulty since I was hit by a truck. It is true, but only because I need to deal with insurance, buying a car, and needing to inspect it.

When I got on the computer I tried to find the tab I keep open for work, but I have too many windows, with too many tabs, and so instead of trying to make a deadline I already missed, I'm clearing out my tabs.

I narrated those two paragraphs on my phone and only needed to make a few corrections, which is easy to do from the comfort of home.

Then I told my phone to copy them and my computer to paste them.

It can be handy to tie my phone to my computer. Earlier I was trying to figure out where I left my phone. I turned on the camera, but didn't see anything.

Ah!

I needed to turn on the flashlight!

My phone was in a bathroom drawer, so it still might not have helped.

[Xist]

I think the call versus text thing is mostly an age issue, but whether we act old or young isn't necessarily related to how old we are.

I have called myself grumpy for years and I randomly say "Get off my lawn!" when nobody is on my lawn.

I guess that I am making fun of myself for being grumpy.

Jay Leno had a kid on his show and asked how come we didn't have texting before cell phones?

The first two-way pager came out in 1995.

I could have lost my new teleclient because I waited 6 days to call the mom.

I just don't like talking on the phone, but I think part of it is the stress of dealing with strangers.

I requested to chat with someone at Uhaul instead of calling tonight and did the same with Samsung Canada eh last night, but called Home Depot today to see if they had a truck available.

I really don't think that I can chat with employees in specific stores, let alone individual departments.

Unfortunately, I was on the phone for 22 minutes, only because it inexplicably took that long to rent a Uhaul.

Uhaul is 3 miles further, charges per mile, and I need to pay for those extra 6 miles, but Home Depot never answered, and when I called on Saturday they said they didn't have any trucks.

Anyway, calling new families stresses me. I have had clients with unusual names and if the parents want their kids being bullied that is on them, but I once had a mom hang up on me and immediately drop me because I didn't know how to pronounce her kid's name. A name which I had never seen before, nor have I seen it since.

My new client's name is common enough. No problem!

Except, not to give away my clients' information, but his name is Spanish.

No problem! I speak Spanish!

Have I mention that I mumble?

It is probably worse in Spanish, but it is aggravating in either language!

I am a Speech therapist!

The thing is: His name has an R, which is a completely different sound in Spanish, and despite learning how to produce it correctly almost 25 years ago, I still mess it up, so I worried that I would say his name wrong and lose a brand-new client.

My clients have more than enough issues, but sometimes their parents are a bigger problem than whatever conditions they have and I always dread getting more of those clients.

It just seems unprofessional to start with a text, though.

Like I always did better in on-line classes, but I feel that I should try to establish relationships with my instructors and classmates.

None of them have liked me so far, but that doesn't mean that nobody ever will!

[Xist]

There are time and places for each. I can send my mom and sisters a text and they will probably ignore it. If I do get any response one of my sisters will usually emphasize it.

What does that even mean?!

I might send a text just saying "Moving," which nobody ever understands, but do they want me to take the time to write "Just to let you know, I am just leaving?"

No, that didn't take long, but when you are in a hurry it seems too much.

My thing is that if you tell me I will probably forget, but if there is a written record I will vaguely remember something about something and hopefully I can find it.

Finally, I think that I have mentioned an ancient multiplayer game from the eighties that I play.

"Play" is a loose term. For the past 72 hours around 2200 I will stop a script, go home, deposit my credits, and then resume the script, but usually I spend maybe an hour once or twice a day doing boring things.

I have never won the game. Someone always comes along and while I don't focus on becoming as strong as possible, they do, they take all of my stuff, and they kill me.

I don't understand how that is fun.

I started playing on a server just because someone had gone through and trashed everything. It was extremely unplayable, but not completely, so every day I did what I could and slowly made the game playable.

Just when I had cleared out most of the 10,000,000 fighters and 50,000 mines throughout the galaxy, before I could start rebuilding several thousand ports, someone started playing 24/7, and I started asking for help.

I just wanted to finish clearing the fighters and the mines, rebuild the ports, and then I was going to quit.

I didn't want to build an empire, I just wanted to restore the game so other people could play.

Then there were two, three, and four players running scripts 24/7, and finally other players started saying they would mentor me, but in a new game, like I was supposed to abandon mine.

While the first text message came out 19 years after the first cell phone, my would-be mentor insisted that texting was out-of-date, and voice was cutting edge.

Ten years ago people in WoW wanted me to voice chat because they considered it fun.

I said that I sounded like Fran Drescher and Gilbert Gottfried's illegitimate love child.

I didn't want to talk for the sake of talking.

The TW2002 mentor made a big deal out of how much faster he could communicate through voice than writing, which had a point.

I just wouldn't remember it.

Younger people generally scoff at the idea of phoning people and insist on texting.

Older people often refuse to text and insist on having long and boring conversations.

However, when I have a 45-60 minute drive for work I like to call a friend in Washington.