Honda replaced touchscreen HVAC controls with conventional dials ‘to minimise disruption’ – report
The more eagle-eyed may have noticed that the 2020 Honda Jazz that went on sale in Japan in February featured air-conditioning control which reverted to a conventional dial setup, in place of the touch panel configuration which has been employed on the hatchback’s predecessor, among other models as well.
Despite most automakers more widely using touch panels, Honda has taken an about-turn on this particular area of ergonomics. “The reason is quite simple – we wanted to minimise driver disruption for operation, in particular for the heater and air-conditioning,” said Jazz project leader Takeki Tanaka to Autocar.
“We changed it from touchscreen to dial operation, as we received customer feedback that it was difficult to operate intuitively. You had to look at the screen to change the heater seating, therefore, we changed it so one can operate it without looking, giving more confidence while driving,” Tanaka added.
Most automakers have taken the touch panel route as it mimics smartphones and therefore serves as inspiration for the design of controls, and Audi said that the decision to remove certain physical buttons was made as “more and more people were getting into touch functions with smartphones”, and added that the new system is as user-friendly as the previous one, said Audi A3 head of electronics, Melanie Limmer.
What do you think, dear readers? Is the move back to tactile, physical controls a welcome one? How has the user experience been with touch panel systems such as the ones described? Let us know in the comments section below.
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