MyTechBook

As I look around for a new car – I find myself laughing at these new dashboards that some cars offer, just look at the one below:

It’s like someone has just stuck some flattened tablet – to many this is technological advancement, but for me it actually looks cheap and unsafe. I feel like anyone could just grab it and pull it out of the car with ease making the car completely useless. Manufacturers like to state that you can adjust the context (switch the displays etc..) – but do we really want that ? – imagine you are driving at 70 mph and you need to change something that used to be done through buttons but now you have to swipe the touch screen to get to your desired function. Surely the regulators should stop car manufacturers from creating these so called ‘innovations’ as it takes the drivers attention off the road. The argument that you would take your eye off the road to adjust a button control is a false narrative as most people have a feel and idea of where the controls are for specific functions of the car and have been doing so for decades.

Personally I blame Tesla for all this:

Look at the above, they have not even bothered with any traditional driver features in the dashboard, it really looks like they have just dumped some tablet into the car as its main control feature. In many ways they have done a Steve Jobs type iPhone introduction to Cars just as he did to the mobile phone by taking away physical buttons and replacing it with on-screen buttons when you need it. But mobile phones don’t travel at 70 mph by their own do they ?

For me the ideal dashboards should always be embedded inside some casing so that you know that it is hooked up to the mechanical/electronic parts of the car, not something that looks like you can just pull out. Also, is there not a worry about having a single control panel handling all aspects of the car – what if the touch-screen stops working ? does that mean the car becomes useless ?

Cars are becoming more expensive and manufacturers love to include all these new electronic features and even charge extra due to these new dashboards. But are we being tricked into this ? – I think its actually cheaper for them to just stick a tablet on rather than create a fixed dashboard within a casing like they used to do (that’s not to say many still do and will continue to do so).

I would love to know your thoughts on this, for me my search continues…