What happened to steering wheel-mounted controls?
 

I was browsing through Engadget and came across this article by chance - and what do you know, there's a 2013 BRZ with steering wheel controls. So, that raises the question: what the heck happened?

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/11/a...ands-on-video/

http://i.imgur.com/KybJt.png

Putting something into production and building it to a price point, versus a pre-production model with all sorts of parts bin stuff attached to it.

You do know we have a search feature correct?

My bad if this has been brought up before. If that's the case, let this sink to the archives.

Not trying to give you a hard time. It was a while back ago that this was discussed. I bet you can still get them if you have the $$$$. My uncle told me once "anything is possible, it just depends on how much your willing to spend on it."

Imagine the world today, if Tesla was givin a blank check to research and develop the ideas he had running threw his mind.

I for one don't really mind that it doesn't have any, since the head unit is so close to the steering wheel, it really isn't bothersome to change anything. Although, a volume adjustment on the wheel would be nice. :)

That wheel seems oddly large compared to what I've seen. Maybe they dropped the controls in favor of the smaller wheel idk.

i remember when the preproduction pic surface with the steeringwheel control. majority of the forum member including myself reject this feature and give a negative review.

however, lately. people started to come out of the woodwork wanting to have it back...

i for one like my steering wheel clean. yes the control would be nice, but when i am driving this car, i am more focus on the drive than the controls.

I had them on my TC, and I thought I'd really miss them, but I don't. As Jayde says, the head unit is so close at hand (heck, everything is) that you just don't need them. And with the tiny steering wheel, there's not a lot of real estate to put them in.

I would like to have steering wheel controls. It's a PITA to switch from navi to audio to back to navi just to skip a song or change what station i'm listening to on the radio.

You can do these things with voice commands but it is a PITA to find the voice command button while one is driving.

A single voice command button on the wheel would be nice.

Also a way to make it just beep instead of wait for it to finish saying "voice command please" would be nice, but that's hardcoded to the firmware.

Are you talking about the button between the audio and navigation? I never use it...and I'm still living in the 90's when cars couldn't understand you or talk back to you.

A track toy vehicle with buttons on the steering wheel? No thank you. Might as well give it a smiley face and call it a Mazda.

I like not having buttons on my steering wheel. Can't tell you how many times I've changed a track on my CD because I was evasively driving with my Mazda and hit a button.

:burnrubber:

Even in 2013 the car can't understand you, at least if you drive a BRZ, lol! I don't think I've ever seen a more poorly implemented voice recognition (or headunit for the matter), I've found while driving it's easier to either use my phone and it's voice recognition or pull over any type in the info because I've yet to have a single successful use of the BRZ's voice controls.

I haven't even tried mine yet and I've had the car for a month and a half. :D

The steering wheel controls were not from Subaru/Toyota but from an aftermarket company

So why then even include a radio with a "track toy?"

I'd think that using steering wheel buttons to change stations (etc.) is far less distracting than reaching for the radio.

Not to give you a hard time, but you do know that you just contridicted yourself right? The point of having steering wheel controls is that is distracts a driver less than having to take their hands off the wheel to adjust the radio/take & make calls via bluetooth/etc. Of course, this doesn't apply to anything done on a track/etc., but for real world applications steering wheel controls aids the driver take their eyes/hands off the wheel less than if they werern't present.

I don't play the radio when I'm at the track but to each their own.

The controls on the demo car is similar to what Subaru uses on the Impreza, where the right side is the cruise. If this car eventually gets steering wheel controls they will probably be Toyota's style to go with the production cruise control.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...9&postcount=13
http://www.automobilemag.com/auto_sh.../photo_05.html

I personally hate how cluttered these controls can get. Have you've seen the new Avalon wheel? It has a fucking d-pad!

i failed to see the correlation you are trying to make here. in order for your logic to work, you have to assume that a driver can only partake a single action at a time which requires the total attention on either the driving or the controls. on top of that, you are assuming that the driver must complete both actions in the same timeframe.

however, we are not such simple creatures that cannot prioritize our tasks or multitask.

so when i said i am more focus on the driving than the controls. i mean when i drive, i exert 80-90% of my attention on driving experience. if i happened to need to adjust the radio, make a phone call, etc, i will adjust it when the driving situations allowed me to (like at a stop light, or when traffic dies down).

Ok, so you're the type of person who would have argued against forks when they were first used saying that fingers do just fine. So we'll just agree to disagree, but here's your troll card anyway... :sigh:

Engineers said the controls would have made the wheel bigger by 1 inch (or 1.5 I forget). Anyway, small wheels rule!

I miss the controls.

Today on the way to work, I have to drive directly into the sun.

No way to use a touch screen.

Need the controls on the wheel.

They are a practical safety feature.

Ever wonder if Subaru/Toyota monitored the forums, saw our reaction, and decided to throw them out?

It's an easy way to cut money, and if the average buyer doesn't value it...

My friend asked: "No controls on the wheel?"

I replied: "Real cars don't have wheel controls."

Him: "F1 cars have tons of wheel controls."

http://okayface.com/okay-face.jpg

I kinda wish my BRZ had some simple steering wheel controls. I really like the ones on the steering wheel of my Mini Cooper, two simple 4-way pads, one for cruise, one for audio. The controls on my wife's Fusion are kinda out of hand though, something like 8 or more buttons on each side of the steering wheel.

If the BRZ was simply a stripped down dedicated track/autocross car with few creature comforts, little sound deadening, and not really meant for daily driving, I could see not having steering wheel controls, and I'd be fine with that, but to include all of the standard comfort/tech oriented features it has and then not include steering wheel controls, its a bit ridiculous.

troll card... im not the one that started on this debate.

we can agree to disagree. but its funny how the person who started a bad argument usually is the one call the other person a troll.

just saying.