In general, I don’t mind driving EV cars, but man the lack of physical controls drives me nuts. I don’t know why every EV car designer just collectively agreed that physical buttons are a thing in the past and go all in that centre screen. It’s so counter intuitive. That is one major reason I went with the new Accord instead of getting an EV: the AC knobs. During night drive, the thee knobs have a ring of white light around them which make the interior look pretty cool. Also it’s super easy to control fan speed and temperature using the knobs. I’m interested in the upcoming VW ID7, but even the AIR VENTS are controlled with the screen, like WTF??? And I thought it’s dumb to open the glove box using the screen in Tesla.
My car is a 19 year old manual with analog guages and no navigation/infotainment screen. I like the clean interior of a Tesla but wasn’t sure if I could handle the screen being in the middle and having to do most everything through it so decided to rent a Tesla for 11 days on vacation also to see if the suspension would be too harsh and the build quality unacceptable. It took me a while to figure how to adjust the temperature - the bottom just said “Lo” and after quite a while, finally displayed the temperature, which I was able to adjust up or down with the < and >. After figuring out the left scroll wheel adjusts the radio volume and the right scroll wheel the autopilot speed, I’m pretty comfortable with the screen for most everything else. I just wish there was a navigation button on screen to return to the navigation map from other screens like controls, HVAC, or radio rather than having to press the car/controls button twice.
“… the bottom just said “Lo”…”
When I first picked up my Tesla years ago, the bottom just said “Hi”. “Hi yourself,” I thought, then the car started getting really warm.