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Comment by tw04 | Hacker News Reader

It's not half and half, it's touchscreen with a physical volume knob which in my opinion is the right way. Having touch controls for volume is a horrible idea (my car has touch control for everything and I despise trying to get the volume adjusted quickly).

https://i.imgur.com/Lw4GgNW.jpeg

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If a touchscreen is bad for volume, it is probably bad for most other up and down adjustments too (e.g. temp). I'd argue touch screens are bad for everything when you are driving, because you can't feel your way around.

I hate touchscreens in cars. Avoiding them is a big part of why my current ride is from 2011.

Same. Want nothing to do with them.

Also night driving. I love low interior indicator lighting. The big screens inhibit night vision. The older we get, the worse this is.

Touchscreens aren't as bad as the cheap capacitive switches that seem to be taking over the Appliance product space. Every appliance in my new house's kitchen has those damn capacitive switches and they only work ~10% of the time.

I don't disagree, I just tend not to adjust those as frequently. I think Ram has a nice balance between physical and touch:

https://i.imgur.com/anDbKgG.jpg

In general I prefer knob controls for things like temperature and volume, but the physical up/down is ok

Oh man, I'm not sure I agree that anything in that Ram dash looks either nice or balanced. That thing is a mess.

I agree with the sentiment though. I think Mazda and Volvo have had sensible approaches.

On the Ram example though, how would I change what I'm listening to? Would I press:

- select source - favourites - for you - audio - categories - media - related - search - apps - tune - > arrow at top - < > CH arrows at bottom

All those buttons are present at the same time

>Having touch controls for volume is a horrible idea

I second that. This also applies to heater controls and lighting and almost everything else that i can't think of. The benefit of the tactility of physical buttons and switches is sadly being coldly ignored by those who design our cars.

Maybe I am asking for too much but I want physical knobs for: Volume Control, HVAC Fan Speed, HVAC Temp.

A tangential question: Does anyone know why there is an AC button on older cars? I can turn the temp all the way down but that just does outside air temp. If i want real AC I need to hit a button to turn it on. In my ideal car turning the knob to the lowest temp would get me cold air no matter what.

Because the button is connected to a relay that turns the AC compressor on or off. The compressor actually draws quite a bit of power.

The hot/cold adjustment is adjusting a baffle/mixer that can either let in "cold" outside air, or air that's been heated by the engine compartment into the car. Think of it like driving around on a sunny day in the fall - sun is heating up the inside of the car, but the outside air is cold enough it would be silly and a waste of gas to turn on the A/C compressor.

I had a 1996 (iirc) Buick that had AC/Heat knob that did that. It was red on the right, blue on the left. If you left it at the detente position it was outside air. Turn in left, AC; turn it right, heat. Then there was just a separate knob for fan speed. Now that you mention it, I’ve never seen that again.

If you want to defrost your windows, you want hot, dry air. Air conditioning dries your air. If you combine A/C and heat, you get the best defrost performance.

A/C also consumes some amount of power and fuel efficiency- you may want the coolest air you could possibly have without A/C.

Two reasons: 1) The compressor uses some power from the engine, reducing gas mileage. 2) You can actually use it in conjunction with the heater to get dehumidified hot air.

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