Tesla’s Touchscreen UI: A Case Study of Car-Dashboard User Interface

[scottm]

Agreed it will hurt Tesla sales of model S. I used to show off and tout the large Tesla screen at EV events and car shows... now I mumble stuff and try to steer the conversation away from the butt ugly screen. Leave it on cleaning mode - because it looks better that way. I used to pull up a big browser page, but the browser is busted dog slow and deadlike on V9 so skip that.

My wife and I show the Tesla's a lot, and we've agreed to use the Model 3 to show UI because it looks better there and makes more sense about interactions due to screen limitations... and the color is better there too for some reason, more saturated..

The "best feature" of my vintage S is now its insanely sized empty frunk... so hood up. I talk about the EV stuff and experience living with electric, travel, etc.. And the model 3 talks about all the tech, driver assist features, etc. I tell people to buy model 3 if they're into Tesla, "as the model S seems to be falling behind in tech". Even with the new motors. And I also say "buy what you see today if you like it, and don't buy any promises of what's to come in software - if you can't see it today assume it's not coming". This kisses a lot of Tesla profit away. But I'm being honest.

 

[trayloader]

Killing the frunk killed a huge part of the family oriented Model S user base. From function to poseur. Dumb.

 

[scottm]

Well, they didn't exactly kill the frunk, but they sure shrunk the frunk... at first to make space for the 2nd motor (which used to be optional, but they shrunk it anyway even if you didn't buy the motor), and shrunk it more to make space for the HEPA cabin filter (which used to be optional, but now I think it's standard... not sure).

I can actually just fit a full sized spare wheel in my 2014 frunk. Beat that!

I know this has nothing to do with UI. But there are some things I still love about the car.

 

[thecloud]

Very interesting to read today that Mazda has done its own UI research, where they've concluded that it takes too much time looking away from the road to make touchscreen selections. They are replacing touchscreens with physical controls and a projected windshield display for improved safety.

Why Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

Personally, I think there's a middle ground here. A touchscreen is great for some things, like zooming and scrolling a map, or interacting with a visual representation of the car (stereo balance controls; sunroof controls prior to v9.) It's not good for any controls that need to be adjusted quickly while driving at speed (A/C, heating, lights, volume, etc.)

 

[f-stop]

Very interesting to read today that Mazda has done its own UI research, where they've concluded that it takes too much time looking away from the road to make touchscreen selections. They are replacing touchscreens with physical controls and a projected windshield display for improved safety.

Why Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

Personally, I think there's a middle ground here. A touchscreen is great for some things, like zooming and scrolling a map, or interacting with a visual representation of the car (stereo balance controls; sunroof controls prior to v9.) It's not good for any controls that need to be adjusted quickly while driving at speed (A/C, heating, lights, volume, etc.)

unfortunately it's clear that Tesla didn't do even the simplest research for v9 on how much/how long you have to take your eyes off the road to do certain things on the touchscreen, especially with so many things now hidden in a menu at the very bottom of the screen (the very worst place to put them, farthest away from normal line of sight while driving).

If they did, it'd be easily & objectively measurable how long & how far you have to take your eyes away from the road to do things in v9 with apps at bottom vs at the top in v7/v8, or how much longer it takes to identify monochrome icons vs colour ones, find things with hidden popup menus, etc

I love the big vertically-oriented touchscreen in the MS, but Tesla has really dropped the ball in driver-useability especially with v9 (choosing UI design and colour-schemes that may be currently in-vogue for web or smartphone, but not best case for driving)

 

[bob_p]

Can Tesla improve the usability of the user interface? Absolutely - and that's generally true for any product. UI design is always a compromise in functionality vs. usability, and trying to optimize for a wide range of user types and use case scenarios.

Tesla's major software releases usually have obvious bugs and design flaws when the software is distributed publicly - raising into question the thoroughness of internal quality review and the ability of their small group of handpicked beta testers to identify these problems and for Tesla's software team to fix them before public release. Past examples included removing the time-of-day from the display and removing the first letter scroll bar from the media player.

Could Tesla have done a better job with the V9 design? Yes! However, the major goal for V9 appeared to be merging the vertical (S/X) and horizontal (3) user interfaces onto the same source code, so that S/3/X are sharing the same software.

V9 was an improvement in some areas - and a step backward in others.

Compared to other auto manufacturers, Tesla's UI is likely still a better interface overall. Other manufacturers tend to restrict operations while the vehicle is in motion - something Tesla has never done. Touchscreens and mice/puck interfaces have advantages and disadvantages, and I still prefer using a touchscreen, even with the lack of haptic feedback - at least Tesla usually makes the UI elements relatively large compared to other auto touchscreen displays (due to the larger size of Tesla's console displays).

As Tesla is preparing V10 - they again have an opportunity to make usability improvements - not only making the display look nice (which usually seems their top priority) but also make it easier to use, with fewer screen interactions. Though, if past major releases are a guide, it's likely V10 will be like the past releases - two steps forward, one step back - and maybe satisfying only a party of one (Musk)...

 

[scottm]

(Mazda) "physical controls, the company has assured that rotation force and detent strength is consistent across volume, climate control, and all these other knobs. The stroke force for any flat button is also tuned to be the same. And Mazda has adapted the hue of white used to be within a much tighter tolerance (and intensity) across all the displays"

It's attention to details like this that makes controls in a car an joy to use because it turns things into an effortless non-thought...

Tesla doesn't even have haptic feedback on flat touchscreens... it could so easily add a touch vibrator and this would improve the UI for "confirmation" without looking for it as visual feedback as it does today. You could more confidently take pokes at the screen with peripheral vision and know your hit took effect.

Tesla usually makes the UI elements relatively large compared to other auto touchscreen displays (due to the larger size of Tesla's console displays)

..not really. Tesla squanders many an opportunity to have large controls on its vast screen space. Teeny tiny text. Little button hit zones ... swimming in a sea of empty spaces. Ugh.

Get a ruler out and measure the smallest font size for controls meant to be touched while driving a Tesla, and another car that uses a touchscreen. Might be surprised! Bigger controls on a smaller screen are easier to use.

 

[f-stop]

Tesla squanders many an opportunity to have large controls on its vast screen space. Teeny tiny text. Little button hit zones ... swimming in a sea of empty spaces. Ugh.

Get a ruler out and measure the smallest font size for controls meant to be touched while driving a Tesla, and another car that uses a touchscreen. Might be surprised! Bigger controls on a smaller screen are easier to use.

I was out of town last week and coincidentally had a rental car (Hyundai Santa Fe) with a small 7" touchscreen and Apple CarPlay. Obviously driving an ICE like this was a big downgrade from driving an MS (especially with the Hyundai's not-so smooth auto engine shutdown/restart when idling at a stopsign feature), but this was my first ever chance to use CarPlay and I found it quite intuitive and easy to use, with it's huge/clear buttons on the limited screen real estate - not to mention the nice ability to receive and sent text messages by voice command. The UI wasn't without its own problems, but it was an interesting contrast to recent frustrations with Tesla's increasing lack of attention to human interface & useability.

BTW over in another thread @wk057 posted an excellent writeup highlighting the de-evolution of useability in the Model S UI from v6 through v9