I think at this point, it’s pretty well established that we, as a species, are just about done with having all of our car’s controls accessible via menus and icons on a touchscreen. Opening glove boxes? No one wants that on a touchscreen. Vent adjusting controls? Just keep them physical. I feel like automakers have tried this, pushed it pretty hard, and the public has spoken, saying knock it off, already. I suppose that’s why I find this touchscreen-based control on the recent Maserati GranCabrio to be so very confusing and disappointing, and so I’m going to kvetch about it to you, because that’ll solve everything.
The controls I’m talking about are the ones to open and close the convertible top, and not only did Maserati decide to put these controls on a touch screen, they also decided to use a type of gestural control that requires even more unnecessary focus and attention, and I think they’re even deluding themselves about how it all works.
Not having spent much time in Maseratis lately, I only just found out about these controls thanks to our pal Doug’s video, which I’ve cued up to the appropriate spot. You’re welcome:
See what’s going on there? Perhaps taking a cue from hookup apps, Maserati has decided that to open and close the convertible top on the GranCabrio you need to touch an icon on a bar at the side of the touchscreen window, which then brings up a profile view of the car you’re currently sitting in, and from there you swipe left or right to get the roof to go up or down.
Here’s another video of it in action:
I don’t understand why anyone thought this was an improvement over something like the usual rocker-type switch that most other modern convertibles use, like, say, this Jaguar F-Type:
This touchscreen-based finger-swipe method requires an extra step (clicking the cabrio button to bring up the image of the car), and requires a lot more visual focus and attention to use than just feeling around with your hand for a little rocker switch like that one above and pulling or pushing it. The Jaguar method there doesn’t take any visual attention, really and does the job just fine. So what’s the advantage of doing this all on a touchscreen?
Maserati seems a little delusional about this method, too. Look what they say in their press release about the car:
“No need to take your eyes off the road?” I’m calling bullwastes on that one. There’s no way you’re finding that on-screen button by feel because it literally has no feel, and once you get to the picture of the car, you’ll need to use your eyes to see where to swipe. And it takes 14 seconds? Remember, you have to be holding your finger on that screen the whole time, so maybe you’ll be able to not move your finger even a tiny bit at speeds of 30 mph while driving and somehow not looking at that screen, but I’m pretty skeptical.
I’m in good company, too, because Maserati’s own owner’s manual for the GranCabrio says don’t do this while driving, dummy:
The manual says to only do it when stationary, right there in big red letters. But you know how you probably could do this procedure pretty safely at 30 mph or so? If the control was a damn little switch you could just feel with your finger that didn’t rely you to look at anything at all while it’s in use.
So, what did Maserati accomplish with this control? Requiring you to focus your visual attention on a screen to swipe your finger across a picture of the car you’re driving just so it can feel like swiping on a hot person you want to bone, or something like that?
This is stupid. Maserati should feel a little stupid as a result, and consider changing this dumbassery to a nice little tactile switch that you don’t even need to look at.
Enough already with this crap.
The post Maserati Finds A Use For Touchscreens That No One Asked For Or Even Wants appeared first on The Autopian.
