And wanting change for the sake of change doesn’t make any sense. I’m all for change if it’s something that is better. I don’t see how swiping on a screen is better that a simple physical control. Pop out door handles, not better. Having a car now that has very few physical controls, physical controls are just better.

When I have to type a lot (like posting on here) I always go to the computer when I can because typing is easier and better.

One of my favorite stories was a time when my cousin, his wife and I were out drinking in WV And she was the DD, she got mad at us and went out to leave us where we were. We had the Jeep and I told my cousin “dont worry, she will never be able to get that thing into reverse”. We walked out 20 minutes later and sure enough there she sat, couldn’t get the Jeep into reverse because of that stupid shifter LOL

Thankfully we don’t live in a society where we don’t try and make products as safe for people as we can.

That shifter was a very poor design and Chrysler did the right thing by abandoning it.

Swiping on the screen to select forward and reverse, also a very poor design IMO.

because you're the arbiter of all that is good, better, or makes sense, etc.

it isn't change for the sake of change... a shifter takes up space, especially one on the console. tesla's philosophy is minimalism and having the car do as many things for you as possible. don't like that, guess it's not for you. screen shifting is certainly not a big ordeal. people unable to do it shouldn't be driving or should at least be paying attention to whether they put the car in forward or reverse or park. the car can even do it for you in many situations (either auto shift or fsd).

do you know what 'swipe' is on your iphone? i'm stunned at how many users don't know of the feature which speeds up typing dramatically.

seems like a great safety feature then. if she couldn't figure that out, maybe she shouldn't be driving and maybe she'd been drinking too.

because one famous guy died by doing something monumentally stupid, it was bad. got it.

again you just don't like change. you want features you won't use and for other things to not change because you don't like something different. that's your prerogative of course but i don't think your preferences should be forced on everyone.

great that you have the solution for every problem. and why do you think drivers want a console shifter instead of a column shifter?

Tesla might be losing its tech edge: Historically, Tesla owners have expressed enthusiasm for the brand's technology and rated their vehicles highly, often overlooking quality concerns. However, as Tesla's customer base expands beyond tech-hungry early adopters, this trend is waning as this year’s results show a shift to lower satisfaction across some problematic techs such as direct driver monitoring (score of 7.65).

Highest-Ranking Brands

Genesis ranks highest overall and highest among premium brands for innovation for a fourth consecutive year, with a score of 584 (on a 1,000-point scale). In the premium segment, Lexus (535) ranks second and BMW (528) ranks third.

Hyundai ranks highest among mass market brands for innovation for a fifth consecutive year, with a score of 518. Kia (499) ranks second and GMC (439) ranks third.

Drivers can perform simple tasks quicker with buttons, *****, and other physical controls instead of smartphone-inspired systems that rely on touch screens, according to a new study.

Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare had drivers perform four actions—reset the trip odometer; "activate the heated seat, increase temperature by two degrees, and start the defroster"; turn on the radio and tune it to a specific channel; and "lower the instrument lighting to the lowest level and turn off the center display"—on 12 cars while the vehicle was moving at 68mph (110 km/h).

Eleven of those cars featured touch-screen-based control systems; one was equipped with more traditional controls. (Drivers were able to familiarize themselves with each system before the experiment, Vi Bilägare says, to make the comparison more fair.) Each system's performance was then judged based on how long it took drivers to complete the specified tasks.

Drivers performed the best with more traditional controls, and for the most part, it wasn't even close, Vi Bilägare says. Drivers completed all four tasks in 10 seconds flat with the Volvo V70's physical controls. Only the Dacia Sandero (13.5s), Volvo C40 (13.7), and Subaru Outback (19.4s) came within 10 seconds of the V70. The others came in between 20.2 and 44.9 seconds.

That means the vehicles traveled as far as 0.85 miles before drivers completed all four tasks.



These findings don't measure other problems with touch-screen-based controls. Vi Bilägare notes that some of the systems don't feature backlighting for certain functions, such as climate controls, which makes them difficult to use at night. Others rely on large screens that force drivers to look further away from the road than systems that rely on physical buttons (or smaller touch screens).

One issue that Vi Bilägare doesn't note: touch-screen-based controls can be changed at any time. Tesla modified the controls for the Model 3 with a software update in January, for example, and other manufacturers could do the same. That means drivers accustomed to finding controls in specific places can suddenly find themselves having to navigate an unfamiliar system.

In drive-tests for PCMag's 2022 Best Mobile Networks story, Rob Pegoraro was one of three drivers who completed their routes in a Tesla Model 3. The touch-screen console was one of the electric vehicle's drawbacks, he found.

The right two-thirds of the car's 15-inch display "combines too-small target areas for on-screen controls with a menu hierarchy hiding things as basic as the odometer and side-mirror adjustments," Pegoraro wrote. "Worse yet, the system let me interact with complicated apps like the navigation system—and even open a web browser—while driving. This is despite the car being able to tell (by way of the inactivated passenger airbag) that only a driver was up front."

This exclusion means companies like Genesis or Hyundai win awards despite lower scores because they meet the participation rules. Tesla's direct-to-consumer model and refusal to share data with JD Power prevent them from official awards, though their high scores highlight strong customer satisfaction with their technology and overall experience.