The Superiority of Buttons and Knobs over Touch Control in a Car (3 photos)

Drivers spend significantly less time controlling car functions, such as changing the radio station or selecting the climate control temperature, when they do so using mechanical buttons and knobs rather than a touchscreen.

This is the conclusion reached by the Swedish publication Vi Bilägare, which conducted a study with 12 cars and 4 common tasks.





The Swedish publication decided to compare touch interfaces with mechanical ones in practice by conducting a study. Journalists chose 12 cars for their experiments: 11 modern cars and a 2005 Volvo V70 without any sensor elements. Before the start of the races, the participants were given time to figure out how to turn on the main functions in each car. During the races, the drivers accelerated to 110 kilometers per hour and had to complete four sets of tasks:

Turn on the seat heating, increase the temperature in the cabin by two degrees and turn on the heated glass.

Turn on the radio and select a specific radio station.

Reset the trip computer.

Reduce the instrument lighting to a minimum and turn off the central screen.

It turned out that the participants in the experiment spent the least time on the tasks in the Volvo V70 without sensor elements - on average, it took 10 seconds. The drivers of the Chinese electric car MG Marvel R with a large monitor in the middle had to spend the most time - 44.9 seconds. During this time, the car managed to travel almost one and a half kilometers. It is noteworthy that two modern models with a touch screen showed quite close results to the 2005 car. Thus, on the Dacia Sandero (the European version of Renault Sandero), the tasks took an average of 13.5 seconds, and on the Volvo C40 - 13.7 seconds.

Full table of results from the original article: