There is a new ford commercial which shows an interior dash with avtouch screen interface. Having been using an iPad to type some of these blog postings I'm familiar with touch screens and their advantages and disadvantages.
One major disadvantage is a complete lack of any reference point. In my current car I don't even need to look down really to change the temperature or radio station. I can just reach over and feel the controls. This is completely impossible with a touchscreen. The driver must be focused on the screen at all times. Wouldn't this be considered distracted driving?
I realize that car makers want to one up each other to get an edge to sell more cars. But honestly I think cars should be coming with less crap in them not more.
Probably the only way we'll see the end of distracted driving is by the development of cars which drive themselves. This will probably strike fear into the heart of the driving enthusiast, however it is the only way to take human nature out of the equation.
The truth is we want all the extra stuff in cars. Most of us probably see driving a car as dead time, time that's being wasted until we get somewhere to do something. So we try to fill that dead time with something meaningful. Also with commute times in the gta well over an hour, entrepreneurs and contractors have a long time when no one can get a hold of them. This is what's made the cellphone so popular.
I personally like driving, and will be sad to see the day when my car starts driving itself. Although in all likely hood I and most people I know won't be able to afford to operate a car at that time... but if my car starts driving itself and is talking to other cars so that they all know what the other is doing then a large problem of driving is removed. Road rage would no longer exist. Well actually it probably will it's just that the cars occupants will be unable to act on their anger... Cell phones are no longer an issue, except for the cancers and degeneration of the human language and the global decline of social interaction and all that... Traffic may actually get better.
The one concern I have about a computer controlled car however is what happens when it locks up!?! I will probably avoid ones made by Microsoft.
Drive safe.
