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Comment by laputan_machine | Hacker News Reader

Touch-based buttons feels like a huge step backwards. Have we learned nothing from having to use touch phones for the last 12 years, either that or everyone is much better than me at not missing touch inputs

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And everyone wants to be part of that cool touch movement too, by using capacitive touch buttons. So modern! And cheaper too, but that doesn't stop you from marketing it as premium. Try buying a stove with induction and normal knobs. Nope, it's touch. Cheap touch buttons, that don't work if your hands are wet, or greasy. Which totally never happens when you're cooking. So you're handling three pots, one starts boiling over. With knobs it would take me half a second to turn it off. With my awesome induction stove I'm stuck on mashing the button to select the proper field with my greasy hand which doesn't work, but at least when finally half the pot's content flows onto the touch controls the stove turns off entirely and starts beeping like crazy. But at least it's easier to clean than haptic controls.

Touch controls on stoves are mostly about making cleaning easier. You just wipe a flat surface.

I'd like to introduce you to my grandmother's flat surface stove from the 70s with 0 touch controls. It's easy, just decouple the controls from the heating element.

3/4 of the reason they're touch is being 'cool' and none of the designers ever cooking a meal in their life.

Messes go further than just the heating element. Things splatter, run over. Even with controls on the face of the range (not always practical) you may need to clean them from messes.

Its definitely easy to clean my entire range being a flat piece of glass, and personally I've never had any problems with sensitivity on the buttons. Plus, that whole cook top is then still useful as a counter top as even the glass is only slightly raised over the rest of the counter surface. In my experience the glass top range I have has been wonderful, and I was originally planning on tearing it out and putting in a gas unit. I've since second guessed those plans and will probably keep the range for a while longer, no knobs has actually been pretty nice.

Not to mention that if you're wearing gloves you're screwed.

I literally grew up along side ios and I still struggle to select text, copy, and paste. It's just a fundamentally crappy interface.

They can be done well, think about the Haptic Touch home button in the iPhone 7/8. I'd be happy with something like that on the steering wheel.

I'd rather have an actual button. The haptic touch doesn't always trigger e.g. if your finger is sweaty or wet. The button on the other hand always works. I've broken just about everything on old iphones but never that home button. When it comes to driving a car the buttons should always work, not just under ideal situations.

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