I don't buy this progress analogy. I'm from Scandinavia where we have Bang&Olufsen which were early adopters of touch controls, and it never came to sit well with me, knobs are still better.

I also used to produce music and buttons were always better, more tactile, then comes latency which is another modern problem - imagine a touch piano with 40ms delay, not good.

Someone also mentioned militaries changed back from touch to knobs because you'd never get the same speed and "feel".

I'm convinced the human mammal is simply adapted to use our hands with tools and materials that give good solid, instant feedback with lots of tactility, texture, depth and even sound and we'll hopefully realise this in the UX world.

Regarding the "who even looks at a speedometer" is just bizarre to me as a city/provincial driver also in Scandinavia. You need to look there continuously as speed limits more or less constantly change when driving here; from 30, to 50, then 40, then 80, then 30 and going more than 30% over you can get a huge fine and 1/3 strike to get your license revoked, ie. you actually have to glance quite a bit which i guess is why car manufacturers have put speedometers there for 100 years, isn't this a normal part of driving a car?

At some point, you’ll probably simply have to accept that you’re in the aging minority.

We've been using touchscreens daily for about 15 years now, and I am still enraged by the fundamental stupidity of a UI that puts your fingers on top of the thing you're trying to see, with gestures required that you can only guess at.

Just saw that they put the right and left indicator on the Cybertruck on top of each other on the left side of the steering wheel. Yeah that some really innovative UI. Watch MKBHD’s video on the Cybertruck and you’ll see that they’ve ran out of innovation and are just changing things for the sake of changing them. No rear view camera, driving console on top, no latch for glove compartment, no door handles, etc.

I’m all for innovation, but it just seems like Elon is being a contrarian since none of this improves driving at all. Deep down, it seems like Elon is checking how much he can mess with his loyal base by moving things around and making the driving UX worse. Probably strokes his ego.

Have you driven a car without stalks? A yoke with turn signal buttons is better than stalks, I don't have to move my hand to signal

How to push a button while turning a steering? It's sometimes needed.

Subjective. I feel completely the opposite about them when I've driven them.

Impressive technology, and admirable strides towards their mission, impressive engineers ... but with many failing: FSD, repairability, boring drive-feedback, insurance pricing, focus on speed over alsmost everything, manufacturing quality both inside and outside, and the design language of a taxi-cab to top it all off ... only the S can be considered a decent looking vehicle.

But, above all, once you lose goodwill (via the CEO behaving like a thirsty attention-grabbing idiot) you lose nearly everything. This is what I don't think is factored into their ridiculous company valuation.

Tesla have been both one of the most impressive companies of the last 20 years, and one of the biggest dissapointments (to me).

the ride is so numb. i am convinced it is on purpose frankly

I'm curious what model you drove that led you to that opinion. I drive an AWD Model 3, but also drive a 2006 Subaru STI on the track. The STI doesn't have the original suspension (which wasn't bad, just wore out eventually) - now it has stiffer, much sportier, suspension for track racing.

All that said, I think the Model 3 feels remarkably sporty for how heavy it is. You can feel that weight in corners for sure, but I'd hardly call the ride "numb". I can't accelerate entirely through a typical corner like I can with the STI, but once the weight settles, and you're coming out of a corner, you can make up whatever was lost when scrubbing speed with instant torque. I think because of that, it feels far more like my STI than most all other cars I've driven.

I largely agree except on steering feel, which Tesla does better than much of the competition these days

We don't like "getting used to" going back in history.

Where the f*ck is a HUD in a tesla? That's exactly the kind of car which should be getting cool space-age tech like that.

Elon already went on twitter and said no HUD ever and disparaged people asking for it.

Why did another comment saying basically the same thing get mass downvoted and killed? HUDs are some of the coolest features in cars and tesla refusing to implement it is a deal breaker for a LOT of people in the know.

Exactly how I think too.. I recently moved from a BMW to the model y, dearly miss the superb hud on the beemer. I just can't understand why Tesla are being such obstinate donkeys even if comes to hud. With speed cameras every few km in Melbourne (Australia), and speed tolerance of just 2km over the limit, I am forced to take my eyes off the road abs double check my speed get frequently. If Tesla refuse to incorporate hud, then I will change to a BYD when the time comes to upgrade my model y. There is no shortage of alternatives today. I hope Tesla realise that their cars are starting to look too basic in comparison with the competition.

I've seen a HUD in a non-Tesla car and it was a gimmick at best.

At worst, it obscures part of your vision. It also causes more eye strain to use, because there's movement in the background compared to a dashboard.

HUD symbology is focused at infinity, so there's no 'background'. The symbols and the real world are at the same hyperfocal point.

Fighter pilots have been using HUDs for 70 years and in the past 20 years they have become common in airliners as they hugely improve safety in low-visibility operations.

You might reconsider that opinion when you get old. When you cannot see well at short distances, it's difficult to see the writing on the monitor, so the HUD navigation really helps.

You’re just straight out incorrect. The HUD doesn’t obscure vision, and if adjusted correctly for position allows you to keep your eyes closer to the horizon while maintaining awareness of important information.

It’s the best thing about my new car and I can’t imagine buying something, other than a track beater, without it in the future.

The HUD is order qualifying for me now. I’ve had it in four BMWs, and if I had to do without gauges (which I don’t, because that is idiotic), the only acceptable substitute would be an HUD.

Well said

> 3. Never in my life have I just stared at the speedometer. Why are you staring at it so much? Is something wrong?

Without checking speedometer often, how do you know if you're not going above the speed limit?

Drive by feel, isn’t this something everyone develops? You start to notice how fast things move outside the windows like trees, poles, lane lines. Admittedly, if stressed or excited then I tend to go a little faster but I check the speedometer then. Also I drive ICE and can hear/feel the engine. Guess that would be different in a Tesla.

Anyways, generally plenty of feedback to observe without needing to glue your eyes to a speedometer. Is this not a common thing?

Going say 62 km/h does not feel that different than going 50 km/h, but can result in a sizable fine in many countries.

I often discover I'm going well over the speed limit when driving my Model 3. I don't think the lack of speedometer (that I can see without looking down and to the right) is entirely to blame - though its location not being in my line of sight doesn't improve things.

For me, it's the relative silence of going from 0-60 MPH in under 4 seconds that does it. I have an ICE car that can almost do that, but it does so very loudly requires me to shift gears manually as it happens. It's a full body and mind experience, one full of very obvious feedback.

> Drive by feel, isn’t this something everyone develops?

To a degree, but not to the finesse of 10% + 2mph which is the threshold of prosecution in the UK, for example.

Can you tell 20 from 24mph, or 30 from 35mph, without looking?

Mine is set to chime when I go 8 mph over (you can define this). Also, I tend to use the traffic aware cruise control on the highway to set a speed and not have to worry about it. Also, the speed is in the top left corner, it’s very easy to flick your eyes there.

As with most of the things that people worry about with these, it’s actually not a problem.

Checking and staring are two different things. I can glance at another woman without being slapped in the face, staring at that same woman may result in other outcomes.

The traffic camera will gladly catch you all and send you fines.

There's not always traffic.

> best car UI I've ever used.

I'll reluctantly agree with this notion, but will say that being the best car UI is hardly difficult to achieve.

> There's zero guessing.

What? Do you use the UI every day? I do, and I'm constantly guessing where the latest UI update moved things to.

I suspect my Model 3 doesn't have "touch zones" on the steering wheel either, since if it I did, I'd certainly be touching them unintentionally. Or maybe my Model 3 does have them, and I just haven't found the UI control/setting to know if I do or not.

The configurable steering wheel button is a huge win in terms of usability, and it's also relatively new to the Model 3.

> you're mostly meant to use voice and put everything in auto.

Some of us don't have voices. Being able to speak out loud should not be a requirement for driving a vehicle.

Regarding everything being in auto: when everything is in auto, sometimes the car wants to automatically slam on the brakes or swerve into oncoming traffic or stopped police cars. You may be comfortable with that risk. I am not.

I have also never stared at my speedometer, but that's usually because on most cars it's easy to just glance down and see a speedometer.

On the Model 3, you have to: remember where the speedometer is now (since UI updates have moved it - it's had 4 different locations since I've owned my Tesla). Once you do find it, you have to ignore all the other UI baubles crowding around it. There are dancing grey 3D models of nearby vehicles, notifications, yellow icons, if your blinker is on, and you found the setting to enable it, sometimes a side camera overlay alternating between something you can see and full yellow/white from brightness of the blinker over exposing the shot, green icons, models of nearby vehicles that are swapping out between a truck shape, a sideways car shape, cones, then back into the sedan model (even though the vehicle it's rendering is actually a tiny old pick up trick).

It UI may be the "best car UI" you've ever used, but that doesn't mean touch-screen-only controls in a vehicle are even remotely a good idea.

> advances in technology

No. Changes in technology.

Sometimes changes are for the worse.

Just because something changed does not mean it is better.