The obsession with touchscreens isn't just in cars. Even the crew Dragon space capsule has mostly touch screen controls:
https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dr...-thoughts.html
For the life of me, I can't understand why touch screens would be used as the primary if not almost exclusive interface for a spacecraft (secondary, sure, but primary?). Yeah, I know they look cool and all 'science fictiony' and 'futuristic' (just like in the movies). But real-world spacecraft have been known to wobble and shake at times. Like, during crucial times such as lift-off, landing, and when something is going wrong (Apollo 13 anyone?). It's not always a smooth ride like in the movies. It's hard enough in a car to use a touch screen while in motion, with both your hand and the screen shaking to a blur while trying to hit a small spot on the screen. What happens when things go pear-shaped in a space capsule and the astronauts have to likewise use a touch screen?
Or, what happens when a touch screen fails? With a mechanical switch, there's the possibility of a work-around, a MacGyver type fix. In the Apollo 11 lunar module, a circuit breaker that controlled the ascent engine to lift off the surface was accidentally broken. The astronauts were able to fix it using the cap from a pen:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/50-y...ry?id=64228723
Without that, there would have been no way for them to ignite the ascent engine and lift off from the moon. What happens when a touch screen completely fails? I don't care how reliable they're supposed to be, or how much more reliable than a mechanical switch they allegedly are. Things happen. Things go wrong, usually in the worst possible way and at the worst possible time. It's nice to have back-ups that can be jury-rigged, especially when your life literally depends on it (again, see Apollo 13).
I understand there are
some hard buttons for a few features on the Dragon, such as manually releasing parachutes during descent. Smart move. But what if you need something for which there isn't a back-up hard switch?
Yes, I know you can pack more features into a touch screen, and have multiple nested menus, and yes, it's much cheaper than hard controls. But shouldn't utility and safety be of paramount importance when you're sending people 150 miles into the vacuum of space?
We're all victims of our own past experiences. Even though I switched to all Apple products several years ago, I'm still traumatized from my DOS decades, and all the way too many blue screens of death for which the only fix was a new computer. I'd hate to experience that while in space.
Somehow, I wouldn't be surprised if the Dragon's touch screens are the same ones used in Tesla cars. I know Musk is big on branding, but really?
For me, it's an absolute deal-breaker if the only way to access the radio or HVAC system is through a touch screen. You can't use a touch screen with gloves on (which we often drive with here in New England, having something called winter), and I don't want to have to take my eyes off the road while traveling at 100 feet/sec to try and hit some little spot on a screen to change the radio or heat setting.
Plus the iPad on a dash look is just vomit-inducing ugly.