Buttons on steering wheels

[skyguyscott]

Are those physical buttons coming out of the screen? I can’t tell my eyes suck

I will say on first glance it looks nice

No, the clock looks skeuomorphic to me -- a picture of buttons with gradients and shading to look like the real thing. But at the bottom of the screen, there are physical switches.

Here is the challenge, can you, say, turn on the defroster without taking your eyes of the road? Looking forward to what Ive came up with for Ferrari, and his team's thought-process behind it. I would guess it was a very through and deliberative effort.

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[Hereforthesnacks]

I'd rather have voice controls that work 100% the first time. No, Alexa, I don't want to navigate to the UPS store 127 miles away. The one three miles away will do just fine.

I’d rather have buttons in the mix. At least until AI catches up. I want to be able to skip commercials on podcasts etc…. I can hit the fast forward button and fine tune where I end up in the podcast much faster than by voice command. Now, if I can just tell an AI system to skip the commercials, then that button can go.

But also for climate control. I want to easily nudge up or down. I don’t know if I need 72 or 70 degrees. I just know it’s too hot or too cold. Let me just dial it in.

 

[2kwik4u]

Everybody dissed the BMW iDrive but I liked it once you get used to it. hand on knob (don't laugh!) is more stable than finger to screen

My Q7 had this setup.

Hands Down (pun intended) the best at navigating the screen controls. Period. Full Stop.

That knob in the red circle there would not just click and rotate, it would also slide up/down and Left/Right. Was super intuitive to use, and required very little movement from your hand. To add to that, the screen was up high, easily in line of sight of driving line, AND could be hidden into the dash if you didn't want to look at it.

NOW, the blue touchpad there was a colossal waste of space and never worked right at all. I think I used it once in the 3-ish years I had that car. You were supposed to be able to "write" on it like a touchpad, but it would never interpret your finger drawn letters correctly, and the time gap between writing and recognition was painfully long.

 

[mkg3]

Are those physical buttons coming out of the screen? I can’t tell my eyes suck

I will say on first glance it looks nice

 

[CharonPDX]

2004 Prius was peak steering wheel controls:

You've got your media, your HVAC, your phone, your voice control, and a couple extra infotainment shortcuts.

Having front and rear defog/defrost, plus recirc were amazing. More cars needs those on the steering wheel - especially if those controls are touchscreen otherwise.

(Not my photo.)

 

[impulsoren]

The German knobs did work pretty well for the car owner. If one didn’t have the menu tree memorized there was a lot of time spent looking at the screen trying to figure out which menu you needed.

 

[Mellowyellow]

Yea ok this looks HOT

 

[Seano]

Still miss my RR buttons on the steering wheel - they were tactile and touch capacitance; functions would change depending on different conditions.

One spot that would work well is the back of the steering wheel. The Jeep Grand Cherokee had buttons on the back (15? Years ago) for entertainment controls - were some of the most no look / intuitive buttons I’ve ever used.

 

[LeDiable]

2004 Prius was peak steering wheel controls:

You've got your media, your HVAC, your phone, your voice control, and a couple extra infotainment shortcuts.

Having front and rear defog/defrost, plus recirc were amazing. More cars needs those on the steering wheel - especially if those controls are touchscreen otherwise.

(Not my photo.)

Oh man, I owned a 2005 Prius that I traded in for the R1T and I thought I'd be the only person to ever argue it had one of the best button layouts. Everything I needed in reach of my thumbs, tactile feel so you could tell which button you were touching, cruise on a stalk on the lower right you could hit with your ring/pinkie fingers. I'm sure it wasn't perfect, but I liked it a lot.

 

[azbill]

Still miss my RR buttons on the steering wheel - they were tactile and touch capacitance; functions would change depending on different conditions.

One spot that would work well is the back of the steering wheel. The Jeep Grand Cherokee had buttons on the back (15? Years ago) for entertainment controls - were some of the most no look / intuitive buttons I’ve ever used.

GM still has volume and favorite buttons on the back of the steering wheel. I want more controls on the wheel for cruise control, like all my other cars. Still missing pause and resume features, just as an example.

 

[Seano]

GM still has volume and favorite buttons on the back of the steering wheel. I want more controls on the wheel for cruise control, like all my other cars. Still missing pause and resume features, just as an example.

Makes a ton of sense to me: keeps the whole minimalist aesthetic with great no look controls. Especially since no paddles behind this wheel.

 

[savethemanual]

Yea ok this looks HOT

Yeah, I absolutely love it! A beautiful merger of analogue and digital. Ferrari worked with Jony Ive on this, great video about the details below. Would love to see Rivian incorporate more analogue touches in it's future interiors. Obviously this one is extreme, and is going into a very expensive Ferrari, but Rivian can certainly do better than what they have now.

 

[skyguyscott]

Like both the Prius layout and the new Ferrari. Apple spent a decade or more working on a car they eventually decided not to build. Looks like what Ferrari is gonna build has a lot of Apple DNA in it, and is probably as close to whatever Apple had in mind as anyone is gonna get. If there is anyone more O/C then Johnny Ive (besides Steve Jobs) I'd hate to work for him, but love to afford to hire him.

How ironic Johnny didn't include an iPhone key or mag charger for same.

 

[2kwik4u]

The German knobs did work pretty well for the car owner. If one didn’t have the menu tree memorized there was a lot of time spent looking at the screen trying to figure out which menu you needed.

I memorized the tree pretty quickly, but wife never did.

The scrolly wheel thing allowed you to scroll a bit, then take a break and watch the road again. Then scroll and click around without really moving your head, and barely moving your eyes. Zero movement from the shoulder (which has the greatest chance to impact the steering angle).

I really liked that system, quite intuitive and exceptionally easy to use, even when ported to Android Auto!

 

[skyguyscott]

Yeah, I absolutely love it! A beautiful merger of analogue and digital. Ferrari worked with Jony Ive on this, great video about the details below. Would love to see Rivian incorporate more analogue touches in it's future interiors. Obviously this one is extreme, and is going into a very expensive Ferrari, but Rivian can certainly do better than what they have now.

FWIW, here is an interesting article on why Ferrari hired LoveFrom (Ive) to design the user interface.

Predictably, the new design has generated tons of buzz in the car world in general and the Ferrari-verse in particular, people finding the design extremely polarizing.

My fave revelation in the article is:

Despite Ferrari having its own Chief Design Officer in Flavio Manzoni, Vigna says that the whole subject of design was something new to him as CEO. With his background in engineering and technology, he saw design as just styling. (emphasis mine)​

​

"Personally, I wasn't so immersed in design," Vigna says. "I got this completely wrong."​

​

"Working on this collaboration, I got to appreciate the value of industrial design," he continued. "What I've learned is that design has the same depth to it as any other discipline."​

I find the overall look of the design a bit clunky, I would prefer a more sculpted blend of buttons and textures, but the feel and functionality and ergonomics seem absolutely brilliant -- but ultimately that can only be judged in person, and TBH, in context of the entire vehicle and the driving experience -- would that I should be so lucky to have a go at one.

BTW, I originally thought Ive's design approach with a physical "key" (a matchbox sized e-ink slab that sinks into the arm rest) was a serious miss. An iPhone key is so much more convenient and 21st Century. Then I thought, wait, what if someone hacks the iPhone, you've got a car that's probably half a million bucks, maybe a physical digital key is good insurance.

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