A New Car UI: How touch screen controls in cars should work

[@snelle_tomos]

You had modern UI figured out 8 years ago, wow.

[@MatthaeusKrenn]

Thank you. I think about this project much differently these days. Some of it is flawed. E.g. it's absolutely unnecessary to quick-access this many settings. Some of it I would still like to see in real car UIs. E.g. The concept of adjusting settings based on relative position changes instead of absolute input.

[@HokoraYinphine]

im curious if youll ever revisit this project in the future?

[@foxmaestro]

I¹ve been playing with the prototype and it's a great example of beautiful UI Design, but I'm going to go for the UX perspective and some things caught my attention: - Stateless surface: the minimalism of the design goes beyond the UI and into the state of the system. While not interacting with the UI, the surface becomes blank. That means: no state. The state of the controls depends on the interaction of the moment, that¹s fine, but the state of the system demand interaction from the user. There is no indication of what the car is actually doing until you want to change it, basically. - Movement: a gestural UI like this one looks amazing on an iPad prototype, but not so great when I'm driving at 90 mph on a highway. There is movement and there is vibration. - Abstraction of measurements: well this is more of a detail, but showing the volume in dB is one of the biggest mistakes stereo systems have ever made, and this UI still does it. Volume is relative to the perception of the user and the number of decibels doesn't actually mean anything. - Consistency: the UI uses the same axis for all interactions. By insisting on the vertical axis, the UI is being inconsistent with the mental model of the different modes. It is okay to increase and decrease with up and down movements, but when navigating on unquantifiable menus (like changing the source of the audio) it gets confusing. - Hierarchy of information: the UI is assuming all the posible elements of interaction are parallel to each other in hierarchy, when for example song skipping and changing lies within a bigger layer, under the source of the audio. As I mentioned before, it uses the same interaction paradigm for all layers of information and all natures of information. - The posture of a hand emulating multi-gestural touch on a surface far from the steering wheel seems a bit forced to me. We can¹t see this in the video because it's an iPad on a flat surface. I think it's gotten a lot of hype from online media because it looks pretty and it¹s minimal, which reflects an awesome visual design, but I wish it would be more practical in terms of real user experience. It's a great first iteration, it just needs to take a bit more into account the context of the interactions with respect to the user. Beautiful, though!

[@enzonezi2730]

Best comment. That means putting at the core the user. Bravo Antonio!

[@shammahadesiyan]

You took all the words out of my mouth and more Fantastic

[@TorThryse]

Better than the vast majority of touchscreen interfaces for cars out there but we are not there yet. I would definitely prefer physical buttons and I think they will perfect voicecontrol before this problem is cracked anyway.

[@Charleroifa]

Way too complex. Most people will not be able to remember the many different gestures.

[@klintmane]

And yet, they can't turn off the AC if they are missing a pinkie. UX achievement unlocked!

[@mayckths]

Yeah, but you need an entire course for that cause of the complexity, you shouldn't for using a digital interface cause it shouldn't be complex in terms of the interaction

[@GrantCassiday]

I love this attempt to re-think how car controls will work--but, it's still complex. It's an excellent illustration in understanding why Google (and Apple) are trying to move past touch and onto voice as the primary interface for devices. Easier touch is fine, but if you can just tell your car to crank the heat and switch radio stations, that would be easier.

[@corail53]

We solved this problem already - physical knobs and buttons - you can turn and use them all without looking. Somehow with the more tech we throw into cars the more of a distraction they offer and become. Voice will not catch on because not everyone wants to be driving and be like "change temp to 23 degrees" etc.

[@iamdmc]

What I like best about this interface is how freaking small the writing is letting you know what setting you're changing. If you need to take 10 seconds to get up close to the panel and try to read whatever the hell it says you may as well drive with your eyes closed. Regarding the 1-5 finger design, it's not intuitive or comfortable to use 3 fingers, 4 fingers, or even 5 fingers since your hands don't work that way (especially for 4 fingers). The fact that your tendons give you the least dexterity in your ring finger (and coactivation of the middle and pinky) provide an upper limit of 3 fingers comfortably (as is the industry standard for touchscreens and touchpads). Furthermore, how do you deal with people missing fingers? This is a good start, sure, but it has a LONG way to go and a rethink is required.

Good concept, place it between the seats, pair it with hud display and people don't need to take their eyes of the road.

[@gabehcuodsuoitneterp203]

Great innovative product. There should be voice feedback to let the user know they are in fact in the correct mode. "volume" "scrub" "weather" Next all voice operation.

[@InnovatorsTales]

You were ahead of time, being futuristic 8 years ago , this is absolute marveleous.

[@alinayossimouse]

Great Styling, won't work as well as haptic buttons, sliders, knobs. The 8 things you are controlling with the gestures (gestures that users will have to memorize to not get lost) are not the reason modern cars have touch screens. Modern cars have touch screens because they're trying to cram many more features in there for which individual physical controls would be overkill. I agree that that approach is broken, but your concept solves nothing, it actually removes a key feature of physical control: the ability to quickly glance at the current state of the control (on/off, which value)

[@derekloche7719]

The gestures seem pretty intuitive and would make memorization much quicker for the average person. As for amount of features, I do agree that amount would have to be limited unless learned gestures (tapping?) come into play which may be dangerous. Physical control however is compensated by the shifting reference point. Music too loud? A person brings their hand from the top to bottom with no need to look. It removes the need to look almost completely.

[@alinayossimouse]

It removes the need to look for things like music control that provide instant non-visual feedback, yes. The music gets quieter until I'm satisfied, I can hear when to stop. But what about temperature controls for example? I can't quickly set the temperature to the reference point I know is going to please me in a minute like I can with physical controls without looking. Motor memory out the window. A shame. Glance-able info out the window, too. Is the AC on? Is the airflow set to external? Am I already at the highest or lowest setting for any parameter? Also think about people who are not the driver. How's the person riding shotgun in your car for the first time going to adjust anything without you having to verbalize the things to them that you've implicitly learned? That poses a real challenge to people who are not used to doing that.

[@doranwi]

I see an application for this with power users but not with cars. People are typically driving when adjusting the radio, environmental controls, etc. They need to focus on driving not on whether they're within the inch of space to select CD player in the UI. Also, there's no clear indication of how many fingers are used to trigger what system--it's all hidden ui interactions. There's a far greater load on the user to learn, recall, and apply this system. Again, I see applications for power users and other platforms, just not cars. :)

[@DjalmaAraujo]

Good point. Also, if you add this idea + voice control, it would be awesome. Just because with the voice control, you don't even need to touch. It is safe.

[@ouriel]

what happens to people who have only 4 fingers (that happen). how go you get to advanced settings?

[@daveopincarne3718]

Nice! I like the premise of one control at a time and relative motion over absolute position. After all, the easiest target to hit is the one you're already touching. I do have some suggestions though: 1) Ten potential gestures is a lot to remember. The daily user would eventually be able to, but new users and infrequent users would find it frustrating to remember the desired finger combination. Having a home page with the correct combinations would be visually confusing and defeat the design's intent to retain focus on the act of driving. 2) There are no accommodations for people with missing digits or arthritis; a fairly common occurrence. I suggest you use a progressive reveal. Use a single touch sensitive to large horizontal movements to select the mode. Provide voice feedback to inform the driver what mode they are as they swipe through. Then use your two point interaction to control that mode, which the interface will remain in until another mode is selected through another horizontal selection.

[@autokrohne]

Very nice. If you go back to old school knobs & switches, you'll notice that they are large and placed to avoid confusion. That way you could do things without thinking or taking your eyes off the road. The same should be done for touch screens in cars. Not sure if this is the answer, but it is a better approach than something that requires looking away from the road.

[@ChrisKeen]

this is an awesome concept. and far preferable to what we have today (although the screen in the Tesla is nice...)

[@justinsh3039]

Gestures seem unintuitive like Mike Rundel said. Instead of 3, 4, 5 finger gestures anywhere, there could be different boxes for ac, music, etc that react to the same two finger gesture. It's a more understood gesture as we all use for scrolling, anything more is to involved for non tech people. Still beautiful.

[@johnthomas338]

Sure... man... it's "still beautiful". You idiot. Why not get rid of the steering wheel as well then, and use a touch interface for that? LOL.

[@justinsh3039]

John Thomas Go away

[@alexgirard]

I appreciate the intention, and I love the design. That said, the complexity lying in the number of finger, and even harder their proximity actually end with a quite high complexity. I feel like you assumed that the user would learn and know the interface protocol. I'm renting a lot of different cars, and if it happens that every car implement a slightly different interface from the one advised, then I'll probably end up lost.

[@joelmulder]

I got the hang of this in less than a minute. Cant say thats a very steep learning curve...

[@joelmulder]

not only that, cars already have slightly different interfaces! A Nissan jukes UI is so radically different from a tesla's, i'd have to search for a while to get where I where in the menus I want to be. This is no different for the UI showed in this video. Both modern and future cars will have slightly different interfaces, and will (and do) require the operator to get familiar with the system before being able to operate it without thinking much about it.

[@ArkadiusProductions]

The input method seems excellent. It is very simple and to the point. As others state, there is definitely a little bit of learning involved just to remember which is which, but for one familiar with the system it offers quick and direct operation. There is no need to fumble around for a button, or try to pick out a button on a cluttered interface. I would suggest a compact status bar however, showing the state of temperature, fan control, volume, and other things people would like to know at a glance. It would of course be optional. Or even display these things cleanly in the back ground. A symbol or number could be included beside each item like there is at 0:27 indicating how many fingers to use for each operation. Since the gestures are all the same, with a small status bar, a new user need only learn how many fingers for each item which isn't hard if items are numbered. I feel this would actually be far easier to get the hang of than learning to operate a new CD deck with six thousand buttons.

[@oneguycoding]

I like the idea but think that gestures would probably be a better way to select function. The android Quick Launch Shortcuts is a good example of this. Visual and/or audible queues would enhance learning the gestures so that drivers could move on to adjuisting the function levels (temperature, volume, station, cd track, etc). some control gestures would be self-evident (cd control: tap to pause, slide left to reverse, slide right to advance).

[@Atka59]

Because it is different people will reject it at first, some will even attack it, even if it is better! An addition may be having the entire screen background transition in color and or intensity so that no direct vision is necessary; change can be "sensed" through ambient reflection!!

[@AngusMcIntyre]

This is an excellent idea. Put haptic feedback on the screen (the whole thing vibrating) and you are on to a real winner. My car has a physical jog that i can use to navigate the ui (it is page and list based) but also has on wheel controls for previous/next and volume. This could compliment the lot or replace a job on large screens.

[@ポール-w2k]

I think we should just have simple controls for the driver to operate, and anything more complex you use voice or just don't play with while the vehicle is in motion.

[@jgmatp]

i like the general idea except for the multiple fingers thing. what if you're missing some fingers? it is more to learn. my idea of a better design includes simplicity. something that does not require learning anything more than you would learn for a car built in 1980 for instance.

[@pawelkomarnicki]

Great concept, but it will be hard for manufacturers to limit the functionality of more complex models to 4 things you can control

[@CaioManzotti]

Maybe this can be solved with more than one touch screen

[@davidharrison4186]

2'50 - "All in all this interface gives you easy control over 8 different settings"

[@nothankyoutube]

Caio Manzotti Its a neat idea, but I think its just that "neat". Its well thought out, but what happens if you spill a drink on it or crack the screen on accident like so many smartphones we see? The design and UI are extremely simple and probably would be more intuitive than dials, but the hardware of a touch screen is not practical.

[@CaioManzotti]

Kerrigan Marois Sure, agree! But I think the idea behind the video is exactly it, prototype, test and collect feedback

[@nothankyoutube]

Caio Manzotti I think its a great start and a neat concept. What will be interesting is to see what this is like when we stop actually driving our cars!

[@suniltanwar7625]

That is something that you have done 7 year before I salute you man

[@davesackville9553]

I really like this! But I think the power in it would be to combine it with other more traditional patterns rather than try to force everything into the system. Using horizontal swipes to access high level dashboards that have more specific controls similar to how smartphones and tablets work now. Allowing users to customise these would also be a nice touch for some (not necessary) In some cases it may make sense to have more traditional buttons too. It's all about using things that make sense for the context, striking a balance between simplicity and practicality :)

[@Sicilian504]

This will be great for people with arthritis. They'll be able to do nothing but change their AC settings. Agree with other users, this is not a good system unfortunately. The last thing I want to do while going 75mph down the interstate is have to remember what degree of "toilet paper claw" I need to do in order to change a setting. Doing those motions with my hand at my desk doesn't even feel natural.

[@JelleVerkleij]

The problem is clear and a good step in the right direction. What I miss in the concept is that the touchscreen is not only for input but also for overview. And what about people with a handicap?

[@EileenTheCr0w]

Instead of doing multiple fingers or in addition to that, you could use a sliding from left or right to switch between modes. Of course this would use a large movement to prevent such accidental triggering.

[@L33tH4ks]

This technology should be in every car. You are very smart and should team up with someone that can design an iPad accessory that will connect your app to the car. Make it happen and I will be your very first customer. Very cool. This is what innovation is all about.

[@adamtellefsen213]

Can i ask how did you create the prototype on the iPad? or is this a video GUI concept design create via video editing? Just asking as im wanting to create some concept GUI and have no experience in coding or programing Thanks

[@gtamy5544]

I would find hard to remember finger mapping. Controlling things with one finger would be nicer, and action context can be done having four tiles (accommodating all screen) that would fully expand as soon as you touch the screen. So only the starting point of your touch would act as action selection, but adjusting the levels would be mapped to the full screen.

[@teunwestenenk5820]

Driving a car on itself is a complex task, since the driver has to control the car, watch the traffic and be aware of what exits to take. The great challenge in car UI is that is should interfere as little as possible with the task of driving a car. Therefore I believe car UI shouldn’t rely on visual feedback, but instead look for other ways to give feedback. The big downside of touch interfaces is its lack of haptic feedback (and its reliance on visual feedback). Without watching a screen the user cannot see what button it is touching, if it is changing any values, and if so at what rate. Also, putting multiple functionalities on one touch screen, allowing the user to switch between the functions via complex multi-touch gestures is making this interface even more complicated, making this a very hard interface to learn, master and control. Although I agree this concept might be a better alternative than the touch screens interfaces that are currently shipped in cars (and also really like the visual style), I think touch screens in cars are in general a very bad idea. That being said, I think I’ve actually never seen a real solid car UI (including those with buttons). I’ve always wondered why climate control in a space smaller than my wardrobe needs two-thousand buttons.

[@jruske6728]

Ditto what others have said: finger count and finger distance aren't viable approaches. The small button problem is real, but that doesn't mean all buttons are bad. It seems sufficient to implement selection mode buttons (along driver's side) for a single touch selection, and then leverage the press and slide arrangement.

[@AfifMulla]

Main problem being, whilst you're driving it's really quite difficult for most to safely use a screen. Most screens lack quality even where one finger is required to press a button. I simply don't see many drivers being able to use 3/4 fingers to change things on their screen. I may be wrong. Wonderful concept and design, and love how you went to the extent of creating a prototype and video.

[@O1OO1O1]

I love the idea of iterating to more innovative user interfaces, though I think a lot of people would have trouble with something like this. It's very conceptual and memory intensive (meaning, you have to remember gestures), and from my observations, many people seem to have trouble with things like that. People tend to like buttons and knobs and things that they can see and use without having to think about it. (And even those are tricky for some people to use.) I think more visual cues would help. E.g. An always-showing guide on the main screen showing how many fingers to use to adjust each function. So you could show: Volume - * * Radio station - * * * Etc. (With the dots representing the amount of digits needed to control that function.) You're certainly on to something, I just feel it would benefit from being more visual so it requires less thinking and less memorisation. Frankly, for changing songs on a CD player, I'd prefer to have buttons like that on the steering wheel, or something like that. Something that doesn't require me to take my hands of the steering wheel.

[@sstepanek2]

Wonderful! You might wish to identify what is being controlled through the use of sound cues.

[@nougatbitz]

This points in the right direction for sure! Just came from a Teslar video and still shaking my head about their touch screen design ...

[@man_on_wheelz]

Brilliant, but I'm curious as to how one can remember these different functions. I can see myself now driving down the road in the winter freezing but in a rush to a meeting trying to figure out which number of fingers/movement will control the heat in what way. Too busy with my mind on the road and long after the salesman taught me how to use this system, but still cold, scared to touch the screen because I might end up changing my radio station or setting it AUX unintentionally so I continue driving until I can finally remember what motion turns up the heat... 5-minutes from my destination. I'm just saying I think there needs to be something that reminds us, regardless of what's on our mind, which motion does what, preferably refraining from using symbols to the side because they would either take away from the interior styling of the vehicle or be too small for everyone to be able to recognize. Otherwise great idea! I love it!

[@PhilippeElsass]

It's always impressive to compare some shitty UI with a slick simple design but I think this is ridiculous in practice.

[@not-google-plus8226]

Word, utterly ridiculous. Thank you, Mr L-SASS. Are you related to L-CARS by any chance PS im a nerd :/

[@notiles]

Il y a une idée intéressante qui serait de dire qu'avec notre main nous avons assez de possibilités pour faire tous les boutons et slider que l'on veut, le problème c'est qu'il n'y a rien d'évident quand à passer de 2 doigts à 3 doigts pour changer de type de commande... Sinon le design et l'animation c'est parfait!

[@PhilippeElsass]

guillaume rancurel C'est chic, c'est sur - le probleme c'est que le super design va prendre super cher des qu'il va falloir satisfaire tous les besoins reels de l'appli ;)

[@anynamecanbeuse]

full screen touch control is great, but i think there're way more gestures to learn. how about make these volume, temperature, etc. as a normal list, and 1-finger gesture for each feature.

[@pereverzeff]

It's cool! But you have to remember the all of combination to control music, temperature e.t.c. And you need to know at what position each devices is now.

[@bobbytables464]

Some of these principles could be integrated into a car UI, but on the whole it's sort of reinventing the wheel. If all you want is analog control of five settings, then five physical knobs is better. The point of touchscreen controls is to provide a context-sensitive UI.

[@christopherivey8439]

I've worked with a lot of multi-touch applications our company has built - both on our platform and on the QT framework. In my experience, multi-touch controls tend to be pretty intuitive for gestures involving up to two fingers. After that, people start running into trouble - either with correct placement (sometimes the surface doesn't correctly identify the number of digits if there is insufficient separation); or with recalling what combination of digits to use. Multi-touch gets really problematic with 3 and 4 finger gestures, especially for people with wide fingers or dry skin. The only successful application I have seen of 3 and 4 finger touch sequences has been on very large touch surfaces for multiple, simultaneous users, and that only works if the users are given training in how to use the UI, as it starts to become non-obvious. I should also point out that with any touch UI, you need a lot of real estate on screen, as it's pretty hard to see what's happening on the screen underneath your hand. Phones and tablets are okay, because you can hold the device close to your face as you interact with it, but a fixed screen in a car console would have to be surprisingly large for multi-touch gestures to work well across a broad range of users. Instead of trying to be unnecessarily minimalist, I would suggest using large, friendly buttons to allow users to select a working context, (for example, adjusting the radio, or setting the temperature, or selecting an audio source), and then present a touch surface with 2 or 3 simple gestures like press, pinch, or roll, that don't involve more than 2 digits.

[@cojad]

Wow! This is so intuitive Car UI. It would be even better if it have all the stats on top of screen. So one can read without touch it!

[@nacs]

So basically you're reinventing the volume knob on a touchscreen? Genius!

[@robgifford4293]

Really interesting idea. Great example of using interaction design principles to problem solve a tough situation. However, I'm not sure using different numbers of fingers to activate each mode is intuitive because there is no natural mapping. I guess it would take a lot trips in the car...

[@justice83]

What about just 1 finger? That would make 10 variables. If they allowed for vertical or horizontal swiping, then that would be 20. Surely more suitable (as long as there is a nice way to remind the user).

[@yinako]

This is a neat idea, but it contradicts basic usability principle of recognition vs recall. That is people find it hard to remember and recall how to use something that is hidden, if the controls are on screen it is much easier to recognise and recall where and how to use it.

[@marcussmith7409]

Clever, though I still think having two sizable buttons on the bottom one on the left and one on the right that takes up about 20% of the bottom of the screen would be ideal. You could sort through the options so you don't have to remember all the fingers needed for a function, this way you only sort through to that function and use one finger to alter the settings.

[@DunkinT33]

Beautiful Design! However, there are several problems with this approach. The things that buttons do really well for the user is indicate a feature. With your design, the user has to remember that two fingers = volume, three = fan, four = wait what was four again? It's unnatural and will not resonate with users of all demographics/ The other thing that you're now introducing--just as you point out with the buttons--is a ton of error. For example, the user tries to adjust the fan speed but didn't quite get all three fingers on the screen so now they are adjusting the volume. Imagine this sort of behavior but at 70mph. I'll take a few button clicks over trying to remember the correct finger combinations. Also, think about cold weather and gloves. This type of multitouch interface would virtually be unusable unless the user had a pair of touch screen gloves. I think the idea is novel, but isn't actually a good interface for a car.

[@csours]

My friend is missing 2 fingers, how would he use this interface?

[@jejacks0n]

I think your design is beautiful, and well thought out. I agree that current touch interfaces in cars are bad. But it's more than that, and I don't think just a software interface will solve it. I've driven two cars recently and regularly -- a Subaru Outback (with a touch screen) and a BMW (with a sort of knob thing down by the shifter -- sort of like the initial ipods), and think the BMW interface is considerably more intuitive and less distracting than the touch screen. It has sensory feedback in terms of "clicks" as you rotate the knob -- which correlate to items in a list, allows clicking down for selection, tilt left/right for back/forward, and has a gesture interface on the top (like graffiti for PalmOS) to enter text. They both have some level of language recognition and verbal commands as well, which I use sparingly because that feels odd or frustrating sometimes. The touch screen gets dirty quickly and hard to see when the sun shines at the right angle, and is hard to interact with while driving (even after cleaning). It also isn't nice to interact with as a passenger because it angles towards the driver and requires considerable coordination with the left hand -- which your design would definitely solve, however, it still has the downsides I mention. The knob interface is relatively easy to interact with as a passenger, and requires a lot less "eye time" on the display since you have much more sensory feedback. I find myself reaching for it while driving the Subaru -- and in my experience that's when a designer can know they've done it well. It becomes second nature, sort of like wanting to swipe the display of an old phone. So while I like a touch interface for many many devices, I think a touch interface in a car isn't optimal regardless of the software design -- until the day that cars mostly drive themselves (in which case I'd probably be using something like my phone to interface with it anyway). Disclaimer: I'm pretty forgiving about this sort of thing, and don't need a hardware keyboard for my devices.

[@caspie67]

I like the concept, but i am not really convinced yet. What also could be interesting is to adapt this for incar navigation. Starting from a map centric UI, that would be nice to try?

[@brel1000]

This is a very interesting presentation. I wonder where else we might apply these ideas.

[@guitarjism]

Considering using your hands is more about touch than sight.. only when they develop a touchscreen can have different textures would such a progression be relevant. While this may seem like a great idea, what happens when you need 6 fingers to control the next setting? What happens if you forget how many fingers you need for a particular setting? and Most importantly, what happens if you're handicapped and are missing a finger or 2?

[@oscarchaves6878]

Just an idea... what about using a motioneye camera to swipe from screens so you can organize and use more controls...

[@oqlapsldim]

The interface is clean and simple, but now the user must remember all those finger combinations, swipe and gesture directions to get any thing done. What if a person just wants all the options listed on screen so they can decide what to do before hand?

[@mvemmenby]

I like the idea, but instead of needing to "move your arm up and down", which wouldn't be that practical when driving. I would prefer a turning motion of the hand. Just like turning a normal knob in cars today, this would cause less movement for me as a driver. I am also curious of how you would integrate other functions into this interface? For example, navigation?

[@Maurazio]

might be interesting, but we must not forget that a car must be readily usable when you get in it the first time, if you can't control everything immediately it can be more distracting. btw vocal control is very good nowadays and it's only gonna get better, and there is space anyway for a few physical controls for air con etc. it doesn't have to be 1 big tablet lol

[@soutarm]

Cool concept. Not sure how this would work with more complex tasks e.g. selecting an artist or album from your music source or play/pause etc.

[@JosephShambrook]

Definitely interesting, but most car touchscreens are smaller than a tablet screen. Most are about the size of a landscape smartphone, at best. This type of finger interaction would be much harder on a smaller screen when there's just not the space.

[@jtooker]

Its like VI for your car - powerful, simple to use, but you'll need a cheat sheet for the first two months.

[@aestusx]

Great concept and like the thought behind that. I just know in reality, there needs to be a fallback for people who don't have all their fingers or have a physical condition or deformity that prevents the use of multiple touch points as a control. If this same concept could be applied to 1 touch point, then I think this concept would work.

[@Romerco77]

Ok, so... you need at least, 10" of tactile surface to do multitactile gestures properly on the center console. This is sooo stupid. Rotatory knob and direct access buttons have been working fine, require much less space, and are more intuitive and secure while driving than all this madness. I don't know why now a days everybody seems to think standard buttons are the enemy.

[@gregking6306]

Too complicated. Passengers would also have to learn these gestures and that's another (big) problem.

[@RamenStein]

+Greg King bmw and mercedes have learning courses when you buy a new car because of their new screen and air gesture controls.

[@jgmatp]

+Salomon Villegas yep and that is why I don't even consider bmw or mercedes worth a damn. ridiculous. technology is supposed to make stuff easier, not HArder. wtf

[@RamenStein]

Jgmatp it's not that it makes it complicated. Everything seems complicated when it's new. That's why the courses are necessary to enjoy your car to the fullest. It's like when you buy a phone. Most people don't even care to look at the table of contents showing all functionality. And because they don't even the tutorials on screen they end up getting confused.

[@kjellirgens7436]

I think this would work good in a hybrid setting, so that these controls work on top of the current style of UI, for power users. Using multiple fingers would bring up the alternate screen controls.

[@corail53]

You should not be a power user when you are driving your car.

[@metascrape]

Great idea, but what about accessibility issues? Especially 5 fingers - people who have fewer than 5 fingers, whether born that way or lost through injury - would not be able to access all functions.

[@SuperSZ]

While I think this is an improvement over the icon interfaces (like shown at the beginning of the video), I think a voice-controlled interface would be better and easier, Just talk to the car and it will adjust the setting you want; no need to worry about remembering how many fingers do a specific action.

[@gigikhz]

This is a brilliant idea. I have had a stoke though so my right hand that would control the screen would ball up into a fist if I try to do too many actions accurately. what would be the solution for this?

[@mobileHCI]

Nice, but you realize there are more than 5 functions that can be controlled in a car? On a more abstract level, the unsolved HCI problem here is mode switching, and doing it by counting the number of fingers is not really scalable.

[@KaylaHeffernan]

Good concept but breaks general usability principles like affordance and visibility. A blank screen does not give the user any clue of what to do as there is no affordance making it obvious what 2/3/4/5 fingers do. The system status is invisible and the user has no idea what to do with the system without a manual. There's also no mapping of the number of fingers to what the control is, why is 2 volume and 5 is aircon.

[@codebushido]

I thought this was quite smart! Nice work. I still like 1 tactical buttons, perhaps something like a joystick like BMW's interface. In any case, I think the future is voice commands. Thanks for sharing this amazing UI!

[@ta_trbl]

Reeeeeallly cool concept - but I'm not sure of the practical application over physical buttons - Aesthetically this might be more pleasing but functionally...

[@markusvonroder]

Because you can't rearrange physical buttons when you want to update new functionalities to the car.

[@Alex-oo8qp]

Markus Roder, stop copying your replies to every comment you disagree with. There is not a lot of thought put into your reply.

[@Ricksterlau]

This is really nice and clever however I believe voice commands is the way forward for controls when driving a car.

[@rkky]

In order for this work well, they need to reposition the touch screen and perhaps put it on the steering wheel. It so awkward to place 3/4/5 finger on a screen that's more than half a meter to the right of you while maintaining control of the wheel. there are numerous other problems with the design as well

[@MrSamm88]

What about when an old person who can barely understand a smart phone wants the car? They wont buy it if they have to grab the manual every time they want to change the AC.

[@ganesshkumarrp]

You could have added ninth control with one finger, why have you left it out? Any reasons?

[@HaraldSvareid]

Nice approach Matthaeus Krenn ! Have you tested the concept while driving?

[@alandab]

This is a great concept and nice implementation. I see comments from so many lazy people that don't have the wherewithal to practice or learn something new, but don't worry...the more enlightened will see the benefits of something like this. And given the proper motivation, anyone could easily learn how to effectively use an interface like this. Good job!

[@UncleFishbits]

Matthaeus Krenn Thank you so much for your profoundly thoughtful insight for our future safety. Technology needs to be freeing, like this... not dangerously enveloping, reducing attention, etc. Wonderful, elegant, cheers.

[@cuddles6938]

If you are good with the Raspberry Pi you can build your own Car Stereo as a guy in Hungary did. He is from Britian but married a Hungarian woman. He used the Raspberry Pi and a 7" LCD screen and a normal Dash Kit with his car. Just add a steering wheel control adaptor that is programmable on PC or inside the Car and you have a nice custom system.

[@isdeonf]

"He is from Britain but married a Hungarian woman" now this part was important

[@cuddles6938]

Because he has a you tube channel showing it in case people wondered if that was the same dude. Trolling was important for you wasn't it. Could you have chosen the name ABCDEF to go along with your immaturity?

[@isdeonf]

TekReview's I'm sorry brother please don't crucify me over the joke I promise I will stop I promise I will eat all my diner from now on

[@marsofearth]

Honestly, performing magic tricks is nice for performance art, but just give me a nice simple knob. It does not need to be that big, and having something tactile instead of visual keeps my eyes where they should be.

[@zachariahthomas4614]

We should be getting away from programmable touch controls completely. This is a good idea, for now, but what happens when you want more than 4-5 controls. A voice command system is the most intuitive interface I can think of. You're cold? Click a button on the steering column "Car temperature 23 Celsius, please." You can even have commands to save/load presets.

[@daveopincarne3718]

Except then I'd have to lower the stereo and roll up the window before every command to ensure my voice is discernible above ambient noise. The greatest frustration I've experienced with UIs have been voice commands that constantly misinterpret what I'm saying.

[@andro1295]

it is an innovative idea but there is the problem of people having to memorize the controls and possibly forgetting which gestures match with which controls, which is highly inconvenient if you're driving and if you have less than 5 fingers. You should drop the whole "# and position of fingers = certain control" and just go for a limited number of big, easy to see buttons on a home screen, which are then easily adjustable with your fingers anywhere on the screen once you tap them, the same way you showed here. It will immediately return to the homescreen once you let go.

[@AlecsStan]

The problem with this is that you need to LEARN IT. People don't like to learn. They like to DISCOVER.

[@AlexApetrei]

Dude ... they will discover this interface fairly fast :) ... try the BMW controls with the friking wheal , that requires much more learning and u have to look at the screen

[@RickySynnot]

Seriously!?!? I think if you asked most people wether they'd like to spend hours 'discovering' how the hell to switch between the radio and CD in every new car they buy, compared to just being told once to 'drag up' with four fingers, universally in every car, so they can get on with enjoying the music, and oh yeah - DRIVING THE CAR... which is Mattheus' point - they'd go for the latter. its about designing for a safe driving environment, one that's not confusing and not different in every car. Sure, if there was merit in the different designs car companies used in their entertainment displays, let them be different - thats great. But I think we can all agree that everything on the market today is crap, is not designed with the driver in mind, and needs to change!

[@haz3t]

Ricky Synnot If you want a safe interface design for a car entertainment/climate control system then we should just go back to physical buttons and knobs, so the driver doesn't have to look at a screen for feedback. I agree with pretty much all you are saying, but I believe that there is no need for innovation in this area at the current time. The old way just works.

[@AlecsStan]

Ricky Synnot My main objection is to the visual feedback. The fact that each number of fingers represents a different function or the distance of the fingers is also a modifier should not be taught (users don't read the VCR instructions) but discovered by the user through visual guidance. (The experience of discovery produces the most vivid memories) What we are seeing is just a incipient mock up and it's got lengths to go before becoming a true potential successful interface. P. S. I never said existing user interfaces and controls are good. My personal conviction is that the best interface for car operation would be a voice + HUD combo. Unfortunately voice input is not ready yet, but it will be, and when it will come of age, it will leave almost everything else in the dust, especially large distracting touch screens.

[@digitalconspiracy]

Alecs Stan You are right about the learning, but isn't that what the key at 0:27 is for? It equates the number of fingers required to a simple icon. The execution of something as elegant as this would be in the difficult details, but it's far superior to any integrated approach that I've seen. Of course, I'm not sure that it beats the simplicity of physical knobs and buttons.

[@3sc4p1sm]

another good option would be to just put some sliders on the vehicles stick.. personally when I drive, I like to rest my hand on the clutch

[@themaxproof]

Let me guess .. you're american and have no idea what a clutch is? ;) Sry for stereotyping. Just too funny imagining somebody resting his hand on the clutch while driving .... into a tree.

[@3sc4p1sm]

just a computer nerd, havn't spent enough time fixing my own vehicles or learning about them because I pay others to do it. soz, I have a feeling you were capable of figuring out what I was referring too, the stick thing lets call it

[@ricardoharvey2382]

Amazing how the absence of a visual interface makes the interface better

[@adrianvg2339]

Interesting, maybe best so far, but you still need to look away from the road to use this. There are more than five function with sub functions you need to access.

[@JustinRatcliffe]

I like the concept but it requires too much for the user to remember and concerns of cognitive load emerge since the user is also presumably driving. That aside, you're right on with some of the interaction concepts. UI elements and animations look fantastic too.

[@schm147]

Because cars don't already let you change the volume while keeping your eyes on the road...

[@G0TM34T]

Not the point.

[@EileenTheCr0w]

Better than the current systems, but still inferior to physical controls in real world use... Not to mention, not everyone has x amount of fingers. I think touch displays should just stick to what they are good at: adaptive abilities. They should be used for apps like Pandora, GPS navigation, yelp or other restaurant/entertainment searches, gas station locators, etc.. Leave all the commonly needed functions for hardware controls. I shouldn't have to be fiddling with a screen and/or looking away from the road for radio, a/c, blinkers, mirrors and such.. I get that this design helps with that (not original though sadly to tell you), but it still isn't as nice as the tactile response from turning a simple knob.

[@aboozhajjar5829]

So cool . Great job . Where can I get that ?

[@JoshuaNard]

I have to agree with the thread. The start is really nice until it comes to multi-finger ID where disabilities or cultural/generation gaps come in to play. I'd dial it down into swiping between functional modes (which is nearly universal now) and use the pinch zoom. Nicely done.

[@2660MHz]

great concept! But I think that the best solution will be a Jarvis-like interface...

[@PatrykPawowskiVideos]

This UI needs even more focus from user while using it. You need to look at the screen, to know which particular option you have selected, There are too many finger combinations to remember. You need to rethink the concept, imho.

[@riacharda]

I think it's a great concept! It will definitely take time for users to familiarise themselves with the interface but that's not a bad thing at all. We all learn things as we grow

[@mrwangkai]

Nicely done. I enjoy the approach to the problem. :) It does seem to lack prompt, and have possible learning curve hurdles. Good work!

[@Tarchul]

For common tasks I'd still prefer actual buttons that I can memorize instead of having to rely on multitouch gestures for everything. I'd rather press one button multiple times to browse through input options than having to fiddle around with a touch screen. You are supposed to control your car without getting distracted from driving. With adjustable and correct placement your UI might just work. It sure looks fancy. But the input speed is nowhere near as fast as the way I currently control my car (purely by muscle memory and haptic feedback, without even looking). And that is a huge safety concern. Have you actually tried to control a vehicle while having your right arm extended to a touch screen, gently trying to maneuver your fingers into the right position over the time span of several seconds? I don't see it happening. Car manufactorers might want to use touchscreen technology to reduce the number of actual buttons, but for core functions (the stuff a driver might want to adjust while driving)... god no.

[@jeremiahyu7345]

It's been 2018 now. It would better work with voice cognition/arousal. Less gestures to remember would be easier and more intuitive for driver to command.

[@PeterScream]

Its never “easy” when you have to remember all the gestures