back to article Tablets? Check. Mobes? Check. What's next, Apple? Fondlable CARS

Apple has been granted a patent for a new touchy-feely dashboard device that could replace knobs and buttons with digital controls. The iPad giant was granted the patent last week, raising the possibility that an iDashboard could soon be found in real-life motors. The system cleverly uses a tactile touchscreen, which means it …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Custard
    Joke

    stating there is a "sociological problem" because "talking to one's car is unacceptable to many".

    Although on a cold and/or wet morning when the damn thing won't start, shouting at it (and/or giving it a damn good thrashing with a branch) is perfectly acceptable British behaviour.

    1. C 18
      Meh

      Re: stating there is a "sociological problem" because 'The title is too long.'

      >...damn good thrashing...

      Oh that simply has to be accompanied by the necessary link...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A note to all car companies that consider using this... Don't...

    Really just don't, it is bad enough they have iCrap compatibility without giving compatibility to other devices like android and windows mobile, but to integrate it into the dash.. no thanks...

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      An anternative?

      Isn't Ford working with Microsoft to do exactly the same?

      KIA is advertising its relationship with Google

      So just don't buy a car with the dashboard stuff you don't like. You have a choice. IT is not as if every car is going to have iThingy stuff embedded in it.

      My car does not even have an aux port so frankly I can't see what all the fuss is about

      1. Code Monkey
        Stop

        Re: An anternative?

        Ford and MS? Getting up half an hour early after Patch Tuesday so my Fiesta can install 16 updates?

        Oh gawds no!

      2. D@v3

        Re: FordSync

        Is made by Microsoft, and is great, when it works, which mine currently is not. In my less than a month old car. The suggestions in the forums are to unplug the car battery, or pull the stereos fuse out.

        Yes, technology has evolved to the point where you actually do need to re-boot your car. Great.

        As for not getting the car because you don't like the dash, true, but annoying, when it is everything else about the car that you do like, (including the price). Or you could get a car you don't like, because it doesn't have a crap audio system.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Thanks!

      Dear anonymous commenter,

      Thanks for the tip, and for your mature and well-researched arguments. We won't do it.

      thanks again

      All car companies.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Thanks!

        I don't think I gave any arguments, just a general request that fitted my mood...

        But it makes sense to be as compatible with as many devices/schemes as possible....

        Sure its NICE to be able to send an address to your cars GPS via google... but I would like my car to be able to accept a destination from BING or Apples maps app, or any other app..... and the unfortunate history of Apple shows they are not usually very keen on compatibility, and invent their own standards...

        Now my preference would be a Linux based dash, that can be easily updated and is compatible with many different products...

        I just hope my car manufacturer of choice does not go down the Apple route...

  3. Captain Hogwash

    Re: "talking to one's car is unacceptable to many"

    Though not to everyone...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78b67l_yxUc

  4. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
    Devil

    Overly broad *and* treading all over prior art.

    Way to go, Apple, way to go...

    GJC

  5. JDX Gold badge

    Tactile

    Reconfigurable tactile touch-screens sound pretty damn cool to me.

    1. Mage Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Tactile

      But not new or original. Just expensive.

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Tactile

      Unlike goddamned physical buttons and other controls, which are cheap, highly reliable, easy to maintain, and well suited for purpose.

      "Cool" technology: making things worse to please the easily-distracted.

  6. Darryl

    Buy a brand new car, and three years later, the software is obsolete, the screen is unresponsive (temperature extremes in a car can play hell with electronics), and the processor is outdated and won't support the latest version, so you have to buy a new car.

    I'll stick with buttons and knobs, thanks.

    1. KroSha
      FAIL

      I'd like my car (and TV, and for that matter, phone) to just work. I don't want my driving data to be posted to Farcebook, or slurped by my insurance company, any more than I want my viewing habits given to Sky.

  7. Evil Auditor Silver badge
    Stop

    Usability

    I tried to use cookers with touch controls, some with plus/minus, some with sliders. I nearly got bonkers. Nothing better than good ol' knobs - especially when you don't want or can't look at the controls.

    Yes, I read the article and the part about tactile touchscreen. Would love to have that in a fondleslab. But in a car where my main task is driving?

    1. andreas koch
      Terminator

      @ Evil Auditor - Re: Usability

      I completely agree: Controls that need to be operated by "muscle memory", that is without conscious attention, are better left as elementary as possible. No menus to go through, a kind of standardised setup (indicator and wiper stalks always in the same place and such*), mechanical feedback. Most cars have an extra noisy and hard switching relay for the indicator so that you hear or feel it; some even use an extra one on the steering column because the other one is stuck away in the fusebox somewhere.

      Just imagine that the new update puts the wiper controls in a different place. Bus goes past and swooshes a load of dirt onto your windscreen: driving blind.

      Unfortunately the KISS principle seems to be replaced by the SNOG (Silly Nonsensical Overcomplicated Garbage) doctrine lately.

      ROTM, obviously.

      *My very first car was a 1975 Renault 4F4. It had the indicator stalk on the right and the wiper on the left of the steering. It took me quite a while to get that out of my system in my VW Beetle after that.

      1. Sandra Greer
        Stop

        Re: @ Evil Auditor - Usability

        I have a,1996 Honda Civic, the last one available with cranked windows, a key lock, and a manual boot lock release. That's a lot fewer electronic gizmos to go bad, as in various rental cars I have experienced. I truly dread replacing it with these all-electronic wonders. I am an IT pro, but certain things don't belong in a car.

  8. M7S

    Do the laser used to track where the driver is looking....

    by any chance point at the head?

    Only I've this pet shark wants to test both his hacking and gunnery skills.

  9. Neil 44

    iTunes

    Will the garage have to use iTunes to communicate with it?

    1. Anonymous Custard
      Joke

      Re: iTunes

      Well it could then go for an iTune-up :-)

  10. GitMeMyShootinIrons

    The car.....

    .... Now reduced to mobile phone accessory.

    Oh dear.

    1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

      Re: The car.....

      Up to these days quiye a few cars have already been reduced to one or the other kind of compensatory tool. I don't see a big step (whether up or down I'll leave to you) from that to mobile phone accessory.

  11. Eradicate all BB entrants

    Great, so instead of.......

    ..... simply pushing that button for aircon, or turning that knob to increase the volume of the radio you will now spend all of your time wondering if that control was the quick vibrate, the long vibrate followed by the short vibrate or the mutli vibrate on the lumpy part of the tactile screen.

    Then again I doubt I will buy a car newer than my 54 Cupra as I like a physical response when I push pedals and turn the wheel. I have tried new cars when renting and to me it is the worst feeling possible that the steering wheel is connected the the rest of the steering rack by a piece of code, going over a lump in the road that pulls the wheel to the left in other cars I have owned and doesn't in the newer ones makes me distrust them even more. The latest Astra was the worst for this, I got better feedback on Pole Position for the Atari 2600.

    1. Matt Piechota

      Re: Great, so instead of.......

      "I have tried new cars when renting and to me it is the worst feeling possible that the steering wheel is connected the the rest of the steering rack by a piece of code, going over a lump in the road that pulls the wheel to the left in other cars I have owned and doesn't in the newer ones makes me distrust them even more. The latest Astra was the worst for this, I got better feedback on Pole Position for the Atari 2600."

      Judging modern cars by driving rentals is like judging the internet solely by looking at Yahoo!. Rentals are (generally) the basest, balndest transportation appliances that can be found.

      1. Eradicate all BB entrants

        Re: Great, so instead of.......

        It is if you go for the rebadged Daewoos. As I include leasing, company car pool etc etc in the term renting the quality of equipment can vary (fully specced A6 .... quite nice, but way out of my private purchase budget)

        And as I started my net experience way back with AOL, Yahoo is a massive step up :D

      2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: Great, so instead of.......

        Rentals are (generally) the basest, balndest transportation appliances that can be found.

        You say that as if it's a bad thing.

        From what I can see, with new cars, "bland" and "base" generally means "not encumbered with idiotic, poorly-designed, unreliable, unnecessary misfeatures".

  12. RonWheeler

    Buttons and knobs

    Buttons and knobs. Are great. I can find them without looking. They are always in the same place and always do the same thing.

    Very important for car drivers so they can continue to update their Facebook status without having to look away from the screen.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So they're going to be actively encouraging users of the system to spend prolonged periods of time with a hand off of the wheel whilst most car / other technology manufacturers are going the safer route of finding ways of encouraging drivers to NOT take their hands off the wheel.

    Still - at least the iCar drivers will look cool when they're splattered along the sides of motorways eh?

  14. TheresaJayne

    I have no idea what they are talking about,

    I would love a KITT, to talk to the car and maybe have a long debate with it on a long journey would really keep me awake...

    Unless of course it was to start singing Daisy Daisy

    1. Darryl
      Terminator

      I wouldn't even mind it singing Daisy, but if it refused to open the door, that'd piss me off.

  15. Pen-y-gors

    Any colour you like

    so long as it's black white

  16. thesykes

    I see trouble ahead

    According to the Apple website, the current iPad and iPhone have the following specification:

    Operating ambient temperature: 0° to 35° C (32° to 95° F)

    I think they're going to have something a little more robust if this goes into cars.

  17. Dr_N

    Touchscreens in cars are just plain dangerous.

    HUDs & steering wheel controls is the only safe way to go.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pffft ...

    I've already integrated my Nexus 7 with my car.

    Method shown here : http://youtu.be/B1jzRGxfFBs

  19. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

    Red

    Ah, now I know why Silicon Valley traffic lights are possibly the worst in the world. Only in Santa Clara county will 90% of your time on the road be spent at red lights for intersections with no traffic flowing. It's to give you a few minutes to play with the car tech at every intersection.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No distractions please, we're Australian

    This would almost certainly be banned in Australia, as is anything that could distract the driver - in South Australia that includes mobile phones (regardless of hands free kit) - yes, even using turn by turn navigation.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No distractions please, we're Australian

      It depends on the operator of the vehicle, the type of vehicle and what's happening, but I'm somewhat in agreeance with that rule.

      After this morning having someone not paying attention and remaining stopped long after some traffic lights went green. Sadly my bicycle lacks a decent (or any) horn — something I'll have to remedy one day.

      As for me: I avoid using my radio when I'm in traffic or traveling at speeds in excess of 40km/hr, and would never use a phone. Why a radio over a phone? Once the radio's on a frequency (which I set before departing), the only distraction over a conversation with another person is toggling the push to talk.

      Sure phones are full-duplex, thus don't require a PTT, but establishing a call, whether it be an incoming or outgoing call, is generally much more fiddly and distracting. Auto-answer helps, but even then, I'd think twice before using such a thing in heavy traffic.

      IMO, wait until you're away from other cars and travelling at 40km/hr or less before fiddling with such a device. As for touchscreen dashboards, I think that's asking for trouble. More points of failure, more fragile, less tactile, not a good option for operating a vehicle.

  21. KroSha

    How can a touch screen tell which button you are actually fumbling toward?

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