Photo: Tesla Inc.
Having all the car's features crammed into a 15-inch touchscreen has its advantages and disadvantages, and was probably the most contested aspect of Tesla's new electric sedan.
Like it or not, though, it looks like this is the future with more and more manufacturers opting for similar solutions, though the only real benefit it brings is clearing up the dashboard of all the buttons and making the vehicle's cabin look more like a lounge with a TV screen in the middle.
The downside, as you can easily imagine, is the absence of a tactile response. Grabbing a knob and twisting it one way or another to adjust the volume is one thing, using a virtual slider placed arbitrarily somewhere on the screen is completely another. Especially while you're also trying to see where you're going.
That last part is key to Tesla's decision to skip ahead with the Model 3 and go all-digital: the company thinks full-autonomy will come during the model's lifetime, and it wanted to make its cabin feel ready for that moment.
In the meantime, however, it could do with a different user interface, one that allows the driver to use various gestures to control certain features without having to take their eyes off the road. Luckily, that's exactly what Michael Cherkashin, Creative Director at Hug Agency in Los Angels came up with.
He identified there's definite room for improvement in Tesla's UI, so he decided to make it better. The first thing was to split the screen into several virtual sections that could be occupied by various functions - navigation, music or basic driving info - using a drag-and-drop system. Think of how you arrange your apps on your smartphone, and you'll have a pretty good idea. That way, you can bring the things you're most interested in closer to you for an easier reach.
The second part of his revamp of the Model 3 UI involves the number of fingers used. By placing two of them on the screen, you would automatically be controlling the multimedia player, even if something else was on at the moment. Rotating would change the volume, tapping would switch between play and pause, scrolling sideways would fast-forward the song, while a quick scroll to the side would change the media. However, pinching for zooming in and out on the navigation screen is also done with two fingers.
Three fingers are used for climate control. Depending on which side of the screen the user touches, they can control either the entire vehicle (driver's side) or the passenger's zone (left side). A rotational movement would adjust the temperature while scrolling vertically would deal with the fan level.
It's not anything revolutionary, but it would definitely make the whole experience a lot easier and, at the same time, safer. On the other hand, we can see Tesla is still releasing updates for the Model 3, so who's to say it doesn't have something like this in store already?
The downside, as you can easily imagine, is the absence of a tactile response. Grabbing a knob and twisting it one way or another to adjust the volume is one thing, using a virtual slider placed arbitrarily somewhere on the screen is completely another. Especially while you're also trying to see where you're going.
That last part is key to Tesla's decision to skip ahead with the Model 3 and go all-digital: the company thinks full-autonomy will come during the model's lifetime, and it wanted to make its cabin feel ready for that moment.
In the meantime, however, it could do with a different user interface, one that allows the driver to use various gestures to control certain features without having to take their eyes off the road. Luckily, that's exactly what Michael Cherkashin, Creative Director at Hug Agency in Los Angels came up with.
He identified there's definite room for improvement in Tesla's UI, so he decided to make it better. The first thing was to split the screen into several virtual sections that could be occupied by various functions - navigation, music or basic driving info - using a drag-and-drop system. Think of how you arrange your apps on your smartphone, and you'll have a pretty good idea. That way, you can bring the things you're most interested in closer to you for an easier reach.
The second part of his revamp of the Model 3 UI involves the number of fingers used. By placing two of them on the screen, you would automatically be controlling the multimedia player, even if something else was on at the moment. Rotating would change the volume, tapping would switch between play and pause, scrolling sideways would fast-forward the song, while a quick scroll to the side would change the media. However, pinching for zooming in and out on the navigation screen is also done with two fingers.
Three fingers are used for climate control. Depending on which side of the screen the user touches, they can control either the entire vehicle (driver's side) or the passenger's zone (left side). A rotational movement would adjust the temperature while scrolling vertically would deal with the fan level.
It's not anything revolutionary, but it would definitely make the whole experience a lot easier and, at the same time, safer. On the other hand, we can see Tesla is still releasing updates for the Model 3, so who's to say it doesn't have something like this in store already?
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