Anyone else not care for touch screens in cars ? My wife has one in her car and I think it is a distraction from driving or maybe because growing up in the 50’s I was always told not to touch the TV screen .
Its similar to when people switched from brick phones to touch. Once they get used to it, it becomes natural.
Yes, touch screens in cars are distracting and might lead to accidents when driver doesn’t look at the road.
Should be banned same way like talking on the phone while driving.
Mike
My 2 cents -
I’ve never had a new car until 3 months ago (I’m 35 yrs old)bought a 2020 rav 4. Always drove very used older cars before. My car has a touch screen. I actually find it easier to control and quicker to control then say my wife’s ’09 Nissan with a large screen that isn’t touch enabled. With the touch screen I can quickly go between missed calls, gps and music/whatever without picking up my phone because the phone is synced to the car and I can just use the car’s screen.
It makes me use my phone less in the car and I honestly feel less distracted now. Instead of trying to focus my sight on a small 4” phone screen for gps I can quickly glance at a 10” screen.
I’m a sales rep = always on the road, in my car, on the phone (not saying I should be while driving it just happens).
no offense, but if you grew up in the 50s, you’re at least 60+, and your reaction isnt as fast as it used to be, so i would not recommend using a touch screen car, at least dont try to navigate through things WHILE driving, unless your wife still feels very sharp and is knowledgeable with all the new technology stuff. but on the other hand, its always good to keep learning things to keep your mind sharp, and everything gets used to, im sure even if i were to drive a tesla now, i would still need time to get used to all the interface and stuff, so whatever you feel comfortable with i guess. i just personally wouldnt let my own grandparents drive something like tesla
2021 Toyota here. I get in the car and the audiobook I was playing last time on my phone starts up right where it left off (currently listening to Operation Snow). I don’t have to touch a thing. Easy to use, love it. Love the adaptive cruise control and stay in between the lane feature. I need to find a way to disable the “must keep hands on wheel” feature. Worse for me are the small buttons that control the climate control. Wish they’d connected them to the touch screen.
The, keep your hands on the wheel thing, kinda goes hand in hand with the lane departure feature. It thinks if it has to use the feature too often then you don’t have your hands on the wheel. Turn it off and pay attention. 
Basic functions like climate controls, speaker volume etc. should always have physical buttons. The more of them on the steering wheel like many new cars, the better IMO.
I don’t see any problem with touchscreens for navigation systems, etc. especially when many cars have voice-recognition/hand-free features built in. On many cars I’ve been in, the non-essential functions of the touchscreen are actually locked out if you don’t have the car in park.
I have barely been in a car with a park option, i think i have driven like 5 miles in automatic transmission cars, automatic was a thing for rich lazy bastards when i grew up, okay maybe taxi drivers too.
All Danes can drive a stick, or at least use to, dont know how it is today with so much stupid stuff in cars and people getting dumb in a smart age.
I will never buy a automatic / semiautomatic / flappy paddle car not even if i won a gazillion in the lottery.
I am sure driving something like a Tesla, that would annoy me immensely and i might not even be able to adjust, or want to adjust.
I was born in the 80s and think it’s stupid. There are laws against playing on a phone yet they put crap like that right there on the dash. Then again I don’t care for most “features” on newer cars. They might are supposed to limit what you can do unless in park but it’s really easy to bypass that. I know plenty of places that will do it and most makes it’s easy to look up how to do it easily.
I’m with ya on the auto’s. Of all the cars I’ve owned only 2 have been autos. My 4x4 blazer is one but when ya out on rocks it helps. Real easy to burn a clutch up and when you out in the middle of nowhere it’s not easy to fix. On that note it’s easy to overheat an auto out there but with a trans gauge I can stop that easy.
2016 CRV owner. Touch screen. It DEFINITELY is more distracting. Maybe over time they will improve the UI and ergonomics but for right now it is a step back in terms of driving safety, Wife has 2020 vehicle and with hers it is not much better.
BurningPlayd0h comments are spot on correct imho.
I added a touch screen multiplayer to my 1999 Ford Expedition back in 2001 and watched all the movies I wanted while driving thanks to a bypass switch my buddies installed since the screen wasn’t supposed to operate while in motion. Never had an accident. Started driving my new Nissan without a touch screen, I can’t avoid accidents to save my life. People are just throwing cars at me left and right
I hate them. My VXR8 came with an after market Android touch screen stereo. The problem is it also replaced the heater controls. When you start the car you have to wait for it to wake-up before you can adjust the heater, air con or heated window. This can take 10-20 seconds normally, but sometimes it goes into a deep sleep and its like waiting for a 10 year old tablet to turn on.
The other problem is its a flat surface. No knobs to feel for, so you have to look at the screen. Worse than that, the heater controls on the main screen do nothing. You have to touch them and then wait for another screen to appear. The sound isn’t that great either. Unfortunately the car didn’t come with the original stereo or heater controls, so I’m stuck with it.
Has anyone put up a touchscreen-driving simulator?
One that shows traffic in a window above and to the sides of the touchscreen and requires quick and accurate touchscreen use, or plays a screech of breaks and crash if the driver istoo slow or distracted?
Touchscreen… My cars don’t even have cupholders.
Only one has a brain and it ain’t too smart. 1983 Jetta with 1988 CIS-E fuel system
Another one aint too bright either since it only needs a 9V battery to stay running… once started. 81 Rabbit Turbo Diesel. (recently finished project)
I like cars, the dumber the better.
I had an old Rabbit. Petrol powered not diesel though. Best little car I ever had. Body falling off of it and not much worked but it ran and drove, sort of. Had no front brakes for a year. I would drive and shift gears, my buddy worked the hand brake so we wouldn’t rear end anyone. Paid $200 for it and sold it for $200. Never even fixed the brakes.
I would hate to see your worst.
Let’s see the worst one!
How can you, as a responsible driver, get used to driving a couple hundread yards completely blind?
Worst? 1976 Oldsmobile Omega. 4 door. Blue with white vinyl top and white vinyl interior. It was in awful shape. It crabbed down the road. Ever see those older cars that look they are going down the road half sideways? That was me. Some little horrible small V8 in it that was forever overheating, even after replacing the entire cooling system. It caught on fire twice and eventually the leaf spring mounts on the passenger side decided they didn’t want to be connected to the frame anymore so, they gave up the ghost on I-70 at about 60mph. It was quite interesting trying to get her pulled over. Where she was rightly abandoned.