I have a Megane with the 8.7" screen. I often forget where some functions ‘live’ in the various menus and more than once decided to pull to the side to work it out. But there are ‘knobs’ in the form of switches on the steering column for volume, answering mobiles via bluetooth, and changing stations, and voice command (such as it is), amongst others. The A/C auto mode and recirculation are also replicated in buttons at the bottom of the display so the only time one needs to get into the menu is to do manual override. The smallish buttons could be bigger! Fashion seems to have prevailed over function.
Where it gets irritating for me is when functions are buried in multi-level nested menus, and there are more than a few that are. An example is navigating to ‘home’ has evolved from 1 level to 2-levels deep in menus, courtesy of TomTom Carminat’s core for the nav system as it changed over the years.
Too many computer programmers and computer scientists and not enough common sense re safety aspects. Manufacturers all seem to take the position ‘don’t mess with it while in motion’ in print and they move on doing the same misguided things having legally CTA. Some products lock out some functions as soon as the car starts moving. Others not so much or very selectively, but at least they have made more than a lame effort to protect us drivers from ourselves…
Things that are easy to do by touch (this reducing the need for the driver to take their eyes from the road) using a physical dial or button are best left at that, rather than in a complex screen menu requiring greater accuracy of movement and hence the drivers full visual attention.
It is illogical and dangerous for car designers to make drivers navigate a screen menu to change air conditioner or radio settings. Manipulating a touch screen on rough Australian roads can be a challenge in itself. Using dials with minimal need to take eyes off the road makes much more sense. I suppose the next change will be to move the indicator function to the menu screen.
That will not present any problems up here in the Deep North where idiots who got their drivers licences out of cereal packet have absolutely no idea of what an indicator is, let alone how to actually use it, let alone correctly.
I think the indicator issue is Australia wide and very likely international as well. Cereal packets abound worldwide so I don’t think the noted contents would just be found up North
While Tesla’s lithium car batteries have a design life of 10+years, it appears that their touchscreens in their vehicles are only designed to last 5-6 years…
This opens up some challenging questions for future technology in motor vehicles.
Consumers expect the average mobile phone, laptop, flat screen TV might only last a few years. Technology change and routine age related issues drive replacement with many consumers. The typical lifetime expected of a vehicle is much longer.
The tech in the latest EVs including Tesla’s provides AI and autonomous operation. The systems rely on both the hardware and software environments being rock solid and reliable.
If they can’t be expected to last the reasonable lifetime of the vehicle:
Should consumers to maintain reliable operation for more than the basic warranty, be asked to pay ongoing costs for repair and maintenance of these systems?
Should these future needs and the costs be transparently advised to prospective purchasers before they buy?
Just not a question to be asked of Tesla. What price at the local car dealer to replace an over sized touch screen? A new vehicle may be the cheaper option!
I personally think one should expect the design life if a touchscreen to be similar to the design life of a car. Like traditional cars, electronic safety and comfort systems as well as digital displays would be expected to last the life of the vehicle.
Yes, there might be the infrequent failure of such parts, but one wouldn’t expect their design life to be say around 1/2 the expected life of a vehicle. This is the case for Telsa touchscreen s (assuming battery life) which is unsatisfactory for consumers.
I expect that if this was standard practice of car manufacturers to have critical components with design and functional lifes less than the vehicle’s life, there would be legislative action by governments to protect the interests of the consumer. The reason for this is it could be exploited by manufacturers to milk their customers of their monies by deliberately manufacturing faults to maximise their spare parts industry. Maybe this is Tesla’s aim since EVs s in theory should be more reliable than traditional vehicles.
What he meant is that the vehicles would become revenue-generating assets as they integrate this autonomous ride-hailing fleet, which has been dubbed the ‘Tesla Network’.
The value of the Model 3 on the Tesla Network would depend on how many miles it can put in it and Musk now claims that it could be up to 1 million miles for the entire car as long as they get between 2 or 3 battery module replacements.
Well, maybe not quite one million miles! (1.6m km)
The touch screen is part of the entire car, isn’t it?
The part that wears out is the 8GB NAND flash memory chip - it is a ball-grid array chip, permanently soldered onto a PCB associated with the NVIDIA processor behind the centre screen and thus buried inside the dashboard.
In USA the NHTSA wrote to the automaker in January requesting a recall because the issue affects important subsystems such as the heater, defroster, and warning systems. Eventually Tesla responded, with a voluntary recall. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/inv/2020/INRM-EA20003-11321.pdf explains that “Tesla will also replace the eMMC on all affected vehicles or reimburse any affected customers who previously paid to replace an eMMC, Visual Compute Module (“VCM”) daughterboard, or MCU that was determined to be caused by accumulated wear of the eMMC.” Which I interpret to mean:-
the cars that still have the MCU1 NVIDIA processor with original 8GB eMMC memory on the VCM daughterboard will have the daughterboard replaced with a VCM daughterboard that has an enhanced 64GB Micron eMMC, free of charge.
owners who have already paid to replace the 8GB eMMC with another 8GB eMMC memory chip - will have the the daughterboard replaced with a VCM daughterboard that has an enhanced 64GB Micron eMMC, free of charge.
owners who have already paid to replace the 8GB eMMC with a 64GB eMMC memory chip - will be reimbursed.
owners who have already paid to replace the whole MCU1 (the NVIDIA processor and its daughterboard with 8GB eMMC memory chip) with the MCU2 (INTEL processor with 64 GB memory) will be reimbursed (end of March 2021 is the date quoted).
Note that option 4 -
removes old MCU1 and its 8GB memory chip, and the centre screen that MCU1 is attached to.
adds a new centre screen with attached new MCU2 (and its 64GB memory).
removes the processor behind the instrument panel screen - because the MCU2 drives both screens.
removes receiver for broadcast radio (FM radio) if the car had it (can have radio reception module added back on for an additional fee).
adds 4G mobile data communications to the existing 3G.
changes the browser (MCU2 runs a different, better browser).
the process copies across all user settings except for Bluetooth and WiFi pairing (if it is done correctly), including all the features that had been purchased with car (eg premium connectivity, adaptive cruise control, supercharging, etc).
replacing the whole thing (centre screen with attached MCU & memory) is a lot faster process than fiddling around with a chip soldered on a daughterboard soldered on an MCU soldered on the back of the screen.
Attached image is of the memory chip unit about which NHTSA said “During our review of the data, Tesla provided confirmation that all units will inevitably fail given the memory device’s finite storage capacity.”
There are lots of articles about Tesla recall SB-21-21-001 (NHTSA recall 21V-035).
Here is an interesting one that totally refutes the notion that a Visual Compute Module (VCM) daughterboard or a permanently soldered-on eMMC memory chip could be considered a ‘wear item’ that car owners are expected to replace according to a maintenance schedule.
There is potential touchscreens in cars might become a thing of the past:
The change in EU rules for assessing car safety will flow through to vehicles in Australia. This means any functions requiring touchscreens during driving are likely to disappear in many vehicles, with the return of physical buttons to perform the same functions.
5 features only!
Given the digital convenience and convergence for all else in a vehicle including navigation it’s difficult to imagine going back to the old ways of push button radios.
There is no mention of the steering wheel in the list. Hopefully not an oversight, although many young gamers have mastered racing, street car and flight sims without the need for one.
Euro NCAP announced that it plans to crack down on the “overuse of touchscreen” inside vehicles. The agency said that in order to get a 5-star rating, cars will have to have “physical controls” for “turn indicators, hazard warning lights, windscreen wipers, horn, and SOS features.”
‘Tesla's controversial turn signals are going to ding its near-perfect safety rating | Electrek
