Hacker News Reader

Comment by timidiceball | Hacker News Reader

VW’s e-Up comes very close to that modern but minimal EV I wish someone would keep making. No touchscreen, just a smartphone mount. Analog HVAC controls. Even the battery-remaining gauge is an analog needle (though the usability of that detail is debatable!).

View on HN

The absurd thing is that production will stop due to cyber security requirements. This highlights the absurd effect of regulations . Systems with a much bigger attack surface survive the risk assessment. All these new regulations are leading to absurd adverse effects towards their goal but particularly the environment .

American NHTSA backup camera regulations effectively ban new cars without a touch screen, sadly.

Do the regulations mean that physical controls have to be replaced by a touch screen or is the touch screen just required for displaying a camera feed?

They mandate a way to view the backup camera. I suppose at that point it incentivizes auto makers to add additional functionality to that screen. There is only so much room on the dash after all.

I'd also be surprised to learn auto makers aren't doing this sort of thing because it tends to sell better. Similar situation to phones getting larger every year despite some segment crying for smaller phones.

Once you're sticking a big ol' screen in the driver's vision during backup time, that screen becomes obvious real estate for any other user interface you may want. Buttons and dials are cheaper than a touch screen, but buttons and dials+a screen are more expensive than a touch screen.

If I am not mistaken those touchscreens in cars are cheaper than the buttons they replaced (citation needed).

Seems plausible, at least. A button is cheaper than a touchscreen, but you can replace N buttons with one touchscreen. (Citation still needed, though.)

I guess at some point a (modal) GUI is more space efficient than individual controls.

At some point cars had screens, surrounded by physical buttons. I always thought that was a great compromise.

I've been driving an e-Up for the last two years and am happy with it. It's a small car, just 240 km in the summer and 180 km in the winter though.

The battery pack is not temperature-controlled so it gets hot in long trips, and recharging becomes excruciatingly slow. Then again, it was not designed for long trips.

The new Citroen e-C3 is a modern, cheap(ish) car with a similar concept: optional touchscreen and many physical controls.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com