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I think a transition to much more tech-heavy cars is inevitable, and not necessarily in a bad way, but being involved and interested in the tech world, what kills me, is how far behind vehicles really are.
It is all marketed as being some great new infotainment nav super connectivity system, but in reality, the tech industry hasn't put any time into vehicles. Luckily that is changing, and there are great ideas coming out, but I feel it is still way behind. Even nav systems, call me biased, as I probably am to services like Google Maps, but navigation has forever been terrible in cars I have used. Similarly with touchscreens in general, as has been stated. Touch works for some stuff, but climate control on a touchscreen menu is my biggest hate in some systems. Turning a fan up one button tap at a time on a sub par touchscreen.
I agree that in a car, a button, a tactile response, is much preferred in most actions performed. I like being to keep a hand on the wheel, eyes on the road, reach a hand down by muscle memory, feel for a button or knob, and continue on driving.
I think the next steps will need to come in to supplementing the driver not being a secondary system. I do like all cameras and sensors that exist now, I also like being able to turn them off (like mentioned before with lane departure). A lot has gone too far though, throwing in arbitrary status screens and sensors, for data nobody would actually need, except to be impressed at the dealership by all of the 'advanced tech'
I still have gripes with in car tech. I want it, but it's not there yet. It's all too locked down still, independent to each manufacture, creating no interest or competition or innovation, and it really needs dedicated involvement from 3rd party companies in the industry that are automating and improving daily life elsewhere in the world.
Thus far, I think the latest Ford systems have been the 'best' at least for what I use in car tech for. Mostly bluetooth and music. I still use my phone for nav, sometimes even just screen off and audio coming through speakers.
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