xjokerz

I don't see anything wrong with this. Much better than sifting through some convoluted screen just to turn on AC.

You guys can have your giant screens while us practical people use buttons. Lol. They also offer much better tactile feel while driving.

Don't fix what isn't broken.

EZZ

I've been buttonless for 3 years. It's just as easy to do the functions on a touchscreen as a button. It's a non issue.

tex2670

The manual window cranks worked great in my '83 Honda - super easy to find the crank by feel. Don't fix what isn't broken.

SW17LS

The issue with your argument is that you have never had a car with a screen...so you really don't know what you're talking about. You are arguing against what you THINK its like, but its not what its actually like.

As for "turning on the AC"...I don't turn on the AC. Cars do that for you today. You set a temperature, and it does its thing. Your car does too, just set the temp, hit AUTO...you don't need all those buttons you never press.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

my LEXUS has physical toggles for left/right side temp up and down, and it does EVERYTHING else itself, including turning on heating/cooled seats by itself. it's lexus 'climate concierge'. if you really want to futz with ALL the controls, it's on the screen. it's awesome.

xjokerz

Not everybody wants a Tesla that the only controls are through a screen.

That's extreme and you know it.

Wrong, I have owned a car with a screen... I had a 2015 Accord. I didn't like the touchscreen for navigating my music. Physical buttons are just so much better and easier. It has also been proven that screens are much more distracting than buttons, but don't take my word for it:

https://www.wardsauto.com/industry/d...t-touchscreens

You're welcome.

tex2670

So? Why don't they want it? Because they have used it and had a hard time, or because they are averse to technology? I remember when the iPhone first came out, and our company was using BlackBerries. LOTS of folks said "Oh, no, I don't want an iPhone...how will I be able to type on keyboard on the screen??? I need physical buttons." See how that turned out?

If you say so. My dad would never get power windows until he literally had no choice anymore. "That's the first thing that breaks!" he'd say. I don't really see how this is any different. It's just aversity to change.

arentz07

I think you mean being "averse" to change, rather than "adverse".

It is a good point that many people adapt to the new interfaces just fine and drive safely. However, I also think safety itself is important, and I can't be safe while driving if I am distracted while trying to do something basic like adjusting my heated seat, or something of that nature. I'm not saying people should be trying to turn on the heated seat while moving - it's clearly not that important. But, they will.

Remember how much people complained about the touchpad controls in the Lexus models of a decade ago? Yet, I have seen owners on these very forums who claim that they were fine with the controls, since, well, for a Lexus, they were willing to adapt. If I am a Lexus loyalist, a Tesla already doesn't particularly interest me, so why would I expend extra energy to learn how to operate it? The controls would be just another reason to continue not buying it on top of my already-Lexus-biased outlook.

Swinging back to the BMW, I am sure a lot of BMW fans out there will look at the positives of the new controls. "Fewer buttons, fewer physical things to break, fewer things to rattle and creak"... While others who don't ascribe to the whole Bimmer thing may ridicule BMW for following the trend of minimizing buttons even though BMW is supposed to be known for having easy-to-use controls. Even as a BMW owner I fall more into the second camp. This is especially silly to me when it comes to the preset buttons, which are one of my favorite things in the G20 330i we have now. You can set them to just about anything... navigation destinations, menu screens, even drive mode settings. Now, those nice, convenient shortcut buttons are gone. Let me guess, they're now in a menu somewhere? Can I put them on my home screen like Desktop icons on a PC, or what? I don't know if that's any better than what we have now. I already had to embrace the change of learning iDrive 7, which has actually been really nice to live with, and now BMW goes and takes a lot of the things I liked, even down to the understated, sporty look of it, and makes them worse or eliminates them. At this point it's not even about change, it's about change for the better or the worse.

EZZ

I'm sure you can have adjustable buttons on a touch screen interface. A big reason to jump to a touchscreen format is the ability to change up the UI and add functionality. I thought the touchpad thing on my IS350 was far more distracting than a simple touchscreen on my car. Feel free to disagree.

arentz07

Not to derail this BMW thread, but like most things, the touchpad in the IS is something that can be learned. Besides, most of my interaction with the system is while I am stopped, unless it's Android Auto, these days. The most I do while driving is related to changing the music track or station, something that I can also do with the touchscreen. The problem with the touchscreen is that it does take just a little more hand-eye-coordination to press the buttons than aiming the cursor at the thing I want with the touchpad. In my 2016 IS 300, yeah it was worse.

tex2670

yes my pruf reeding skillz were never grate.

EZZ

On a touchscreen, the buttons are consistently at the same relative position and so you get good at barely looking at it and pressing. I honestly do the same thing with physical buttons...i look at them too. The only ones I memorize are the steering wheel buttons and BMW has those too. Again, touchscreens are fine and much less distracting than touchpads and stupid mouses. I'd say touchscreens are waaaaay easier than hunting for a particular button out of 50 other buttons on some Porsches i've seen.

tex2670

Yes - I love the presets in my F30. I think it's a huge mistake for BMW to ditch this feature with a line of customizable hard buttons.

But the counterpoint to the Lexus touch pad is BMW's iDrive. Widely criticized when it was first introduced, BMW heard the complaints, refined it and made it better, to the point where it might be one of the best systems out there. But if BMW just listened to all the nay-sayers and people afraid of tech and change, and ditched it, I think that would have been bad.

geko29

That's not what I'm seeing on the G2X/G8X forums. I've found 3 or 4 people who are excited about the new iDrive 8 screens, probably about the same amount that are indifferent, and hundreds upon hundreds that think it's terrible.

arentz07

In response to the above post by @geko29 I'd think it prudent to highlight that not all BMW fans are created equal. The ones who post on Bimmerpost don't represent the majority of owners. Think about people who just happen to own Teslas versus, you know, Tesla fan boys.

But of course you're right, most people don't like it.