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Many automakers have been shifting toward
touchscreens embedded in their vehicles,
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dashboards and away from dedicated physical
buttons.
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While it may enable more potential features, it
could also make driving less safe and possibly
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more annoying.
But one company makes it sound like touch
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screens are here to stay at least until the
industry moves on to the new thing.
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Wasem Ben said chief software officer at EV
Maker Rivian spoke this week at techcrunch
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disrupt 2024 and addressed in vehicle buttons
calling them quote an anomaly.
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It’s a bug not a feature.
He told the crowd ideally,
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you would want to interact with your car
through voice.
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The problem today is that most voice assistants
are just broken.
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It’s true that many automakers including Rivian
have been working to optimize voice controls
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for vehicles and haven’t yet gotten to the
point where it works.
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Ben said said the key may be A I which could
help your car understand the confusing request.
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A driver might yell out while driving, it could
also help surface more potential features that
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may be buried by the menus in a traditional
user interface.
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The problem is an A I voice assistant in the
car is still a long way from being successfully
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implemented.
And in the meantime, a lot of drivers are still
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interacting with touchscreen infotainment
systems that can be seriously distracting a
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2019 study from the AAA Foundation found that
infotainment systems can distract drivers,
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especially drivers aged 55 to 75 for up to 40
seconds.
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As David Zipper, a senior fellow at the MIT
mobility initiative pointed out that’s enough
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time for a vehicle traveling 50 MPH to cover
half a mile if using a smartphone while driving
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is frowned upon.
It stands to reason that essentially using a
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tablet stuck to the dash would be too.
But despite the cost and design engineering
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benefits of installing a touch screen instead
of accommodating a bunch of buttons and dials.
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Some automakers like Hyundai and Volkswagen are
still embracing tactile controls.
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I’m Ben Munson and this is manufacturing now.