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Comment by tomp | Hacker News Reader

Anything not on the dashboard / driving wheel shouldn't be your focus while driving. That's why many modern cars have music controls on the driving wheel. Whether the center console control is buttons, touch screen buttons or touch screen swipes doesn't matter that much... (except of course for a few important buttons that you should remember the location of, like 4 blinkers, lock car doors, etc.)

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> Whether the center console control is buttons, touch screen buttons or touch screen swipes doesn't matter that much

Could not disagree more. I find it matters greatly - with buttons and switches on the central console, I simply don't look away from the road to adjust the heating, turn the demist on or whatever. Only takes a very short while to become accustomed to where they are in a new vehicle, and extent of rotation etc. Then it's 99% muscle memory. No eyes required.

Which of course is entirely impossible with touch screen - you have to look, every single time. Swipe or press is irrelevant - it's the look that's the problem.

Like most I appreciate a decent map screen, but I detest the rise of touch to replace standard switches and buttons in a vehicle.

I believe that this was done on purpose. Elon clearly wants the driver seat to really be a passenger seat, in the sense that the buyer of the Tesla would simply pop on Autopilot and then be able to focus this attention on the screen. I personally think that this is incredibly wistful thinking on his part, but to his credit if he didn't think big, Tesla wouldn't have gone anywhere.

I'm all for 'thinking big' but not in a way that seems to have literally killed people in the meantime.

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