Glass cockpit

[unixronin]

The upcoming Tesla Model S sedan has a very large color display in the center of the dash where things like sound and air-conditioning controls typically go.  (See this photo.) Speculation is it’s a touchscreen.  Its rectangular outlines seem to be mostly diguised behind the center-dash trim.

This looks to be pretty close to a full glass cockpit.  There’s another view here, from a different angle, in which we can see (top to bottom) a navigation system, what looks like an MP3-capable audio interface, and air conditioning controls.  It looks from here as though the rest of the dash is glass as well.  No telling how much of the interface is configurable, but if it is touch-sensitive, I’m guessing it’s a significant improvement over iDrive.

Comments

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

Let's hope they're not using Windows!

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

That was my exact thought!

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Man that's a pretty car...maybe I'll limp mine along until that comes up, and pick one of those up..

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Save your pennies, they're not gonna be cheap.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

50k isn't that bad, all things considered.

I mean, the other thing I'm lusting after is a Z4, so... :)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

That's as may be, but the first few examples of anything are always expensive. Production gets commoditized later.

The concept of a glass cockpit in a car, though, brings back all sorts of memories of those ugly digital dashboards from the 1980s. It's not like current generations are any better--witness BMW's godawful iDrive, reviled by many an automotive reviewer.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Not to mention by human-interface usability engineers. I can't imagine what kind of tunnel-vision it took to think that an interface like that, to be used BY SOMEONE DRIVING A CAR (and a fairly high-performance one at that), was a good idea.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I'm especially surprised because I think my BMW (previous-generation 3-series) has pretty good UI design, in general.

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

My first thought is "What are they thinking?"

If those controls are touch-sensitive, the only safe way to use them is to pull over and stop - that screen goes clear down to the shifter and requires that you take your eyes off the road to interact with it. Or have a co-pilot do your interacting for you.