It's no secret that Apple doesn't like buttons, making the iPhone nearly free of the things and then further pushing the offensive by cropping the
3G Shuffle down to one massively overloaded input. Nartron Corporation is Apple's partner in button hate, bringing that bias to Chrysler of all places to develop a next-gen dashboard for the company's 200C concept. The system is called iQ Power and is unabashedly iPhone-inspired, featuring big, colorful controls and even cover-flow album art for media browsing. Interestingly the system will allow "any smartphone" to be used as an intelligent key, unlocking doors and even accessing a video stream of the car's interior -- which should do wonders for your auto's battery life. The system naturally offers
UConnect and features a wireless tablet that allows passengers to send music recommendations to the driver's console. Of course, passengers could also just speak up, but when you're as flush with profits as Chrysler is, why not blow some cash researching useless tech like in-car messaging?
[Thanks, Josh, photo courtesy of Adam Bird for
The New York Times]
posted April 15th 2009 8:21AM
Thats sooo great - I never thought about it. But the good thing is, he has a lot of people around him, which can tell him he is about drashing on a bird of prey...
And from Nemesis we know what will come next: I already can imagin it: "Chrysler's new iPhone-like Joystick puts an end on unusable Multitouchscreens" (don't know if the iPhone will have a Joystick then - but engadget will find a way in mentioning it).
I don't know what all the button hate in this world. I miss the days of buttons for everything. It makes it so damn dificult to navigate through menus to do something. Especially when you are driving!!! Look at that fool, his eyes isn't even on the road. That's what happens when you can't feel buttons. The next minute he'll be a a flatten piece of metal under an 18 wheeler. Some things are cool and other things are too, but when you put it together, it suck. Peanut butter is good, and razor is good too for shaving. But peanut butter and razor sandwich....that's bad. Don't be like that.
Don't Chrysler get it! Stop making piece of shit vehicles and put some quality into your product. Then perhaps after you have done this you should look at adding things like touch screens.
Am I the only one that finds it a little odd that a post about Chrysler spends more time talking about Apple than Chrysler?
This crap really has to stop...Apple did not invent touch screen devices, or even the style of interface that they use.
Fog lights aren't designed to blind you or cause you discomfort, it's way at the bottom and most fog lights are yellow...the real ones anyway. Even the white ones will improve close range without blinding people so I don't know what you are complaining about. You should be complaining about those HID lights if anything. I drive with fog lights on sometimes...I can see better with it at close range, and I know how to turn it off.
I don't get it. How is having the controlling interface be a touchscreen make it more dangerous than buttons? I've gotten pretty good at guessing where the right button is, feeling around for either the big round one or one of the small square ones in my car, but I'm also pretty good at not looking at the keyboard, and I know a lot of people that still have to. So what's the difference? Most people will still need to look down to find what they want to push, whether there's buttons or glass.
I'm just excited that there's one more realm in which technology is inspired by and moving ever closer towards Star Trek. It's also interesting that it came somewhat out of cellphones, another Star Trek tech.
If you don't understand how physical buttons are easier to use without looking at them then you are probably the perfect candidate for this car.
It's called haptic feedback. I can press any button on my steering wheel and center column without even looking at where it is. This is almost impossible with a touch screen. I have a 7" touch Sync screen in my truck and there no way i can feel what button I'm pressing. But the crazy thing is that a lot of the functions are shut down when above 5mph on touch screens. So no buttons to press, means no functions to use above 5mph. They clearly ain't thought about how this will not work just like they ain't thought about building a quality vehicle.
Yes, I can type w/o looking. I can also feel where I am on the keyboard w/o looking. I can feel if I've missed a key. I can feel when I've pressed a key, and when the input should have been registered. I am also looking at visual feedback that is not directly under where my fingers are.
When I drive my car, I can feel which switch is which without looking. Regardless if I have gloves on or not (of course, depending on the thickness of the gloves). Could you imagine a touch-screen shifter? Or a pressure sensitive touch screen gas pedal/clutch/brake panel?
What was your point again?
"but I'm also pretty good at not looking at the keyboard, and I know a lot of people that still have to. So what's the difference?"
The difference is being able to feel the different keys (or even if your finger is correctly on one key), being able to feel where you are due to the ridges on the f and j keys and the positition of the spacebar (and all other keys relative to that) via your thumbs. You don't have to look at the keys not only because you know where you are, but also because you can feel that your hands are in the correct position, and can work from there.
Try something. Print out a picture of a keyboard, put it on your desk, place your hands on your knees and close your eyes. Now, with closed eyes, put your index fingers on the S and U keys on that picture. There, in a nutshell, is the problem.
My point again was that the vast majority of human beings have to look, even though they have all of this haptic feedback from keys beings keys instead of a touchscreen keyboard. People DO have to look when it's buttons, even though it's very very possible for them to figure out how to not. So of course they'll look when it's a touch screen, but, they were looking already, so...
@G Scott J
But they will be looking a shorter time with switches than touchscreen. You can make a simple test if you want. Play tetris or something similar game with right hand and pick a pen from floor. Now do the same test but instead put your finger on a mark on floor. Picking pen is easy, but you probably lost your game with the mark on floor.
Why don't they just make the steering wheel and gas/brake pedals touchscreen too while they're at it?
WOW
ENGADGET YOU FAIL
FAIL HARD.
I cannot believe it took you 3 MONTHS to notice this.
It was featured at the Detroit Auto Show. in january. Either you're really backlogged or blind. Furthermore, for the commenting posters, Chrysler was raped by the German Occupation, and left it with no money and crap to sell. they had 100s of millions of dollars in their coffers circa 1997 and Daimler all but bought the company to siphon off those funds to rebuild Mercedes. this at least shows that there's still SOME innovative talent that hasn't run away for gotten laid off.
News flash "Fiat to Chrysler: Cut costs or we walk." It is hard to believe that this technology will survive with Chrysler or it may be sold off.
Two things. One, Apple did not flipping well invent touch interfaces. It really burns my cheese to see people with a five-year-long sense of history say such blatantly stupid things. Touch interface concepts have been around for nearly 20 years now and most of the "innovation" from Apple was ripped-off from Perceptive Pixel. Two, what happens in a system such as this when the interface goes down?
Seriously? How is that iPhone like?
I see more accidents in the future of the idiots that eat as they drive.
"I could not see my speed as there was mayo smeared on my dash from me changing the radio station, Mr. Occifer"
I'm okay with this.
But if the touch screen has multi-touch, Apple will sue! (they have patented multi-touch, remember...)
Until Apple successfully defends that patent in court, it's meaningless. Multi-touch is a blatantly obvious concept, only technological restrictions of the screen forced older touch screens to be single-touch. Since Apple didn't invent or patent the required screen technology, they're going to have an extremely hard time defending their exclusive right to use a technology (that they didn't invent) for its obvious purpose, regardless of what their patents say.
Removing buttons from a device is a compromise, not an improvement. It allows devices to be smaller and have more screen space at the expense of the tactile feedback of real buttons. A dashboard needs neither of those things, but benefits greatly from tactile feedback so you don't have to take your eyes off the road.
In summary: WORST IDEA EVER.
I see the steering wheel is round, too. Obviously they stole the circle from Apple. Thank God for those visionaries at Cupertino, or
Chrysler would never have that shape to misappropriate. The dash board cover appears to be glass and/or plastic, too. Both Apple inventions, although that likely goes without saying.
It's quite colorful - Apple invented color. It has icons - Apple invented those, too.
Is that metal?? Apple should've locked that up with a patent when they invented it.
Does this remind anyone else of a Tesla Model S?
Right down to the color scheme. Weird how Apple's design is slowly taking over the world. In car it remains to be seen if it's a good thing, or a bad thing.
I'm not sure how well I can operate a touch screen without looking. I can operate my cars buttons without looking all the time, including the stereo.
bad idea. another reason they're about to go out of business.
Why the hell does iPhone have to be mentioned.. it's not like iPhone is the first touchscreen device, but I guess a lot of people are just too stupid to see beyond the crap of apple, and think apple thought up everything first...
do people navigate their iphone without looking at yet? yeah, great idea for a car. *roll eyes*
best title ever..
War on buttons
Wow, this would keep me in my 335i forever. The idea of losing buttons is about as attractive as the worthless ATMs with capacitive screens. some people cannot touch screens with their fingertips and thus any capacitive device is really cruel.
I see accident written all over this new media dashboard. face, meet touch-screen dashboard. "Officer, I was enjoying my button-less dashboard when I looked up and realized I ran over that bicyclist and three of his friends".
Chrysler- think of better engines and reliability- Apple already had that when they made their iPhone.