While I agree it definitely needs some buttons for things, a counterpoint to that is other car makers have gone WAY too far with buttons and dials. I mean look at this hideous Macan design: https://di-uploads-pod17.dealerinspire.com/porschewoodlandhi... . Every button looks and feels the same. You have to look down to find the button you want. There are something like 30 buttons there.
I also hated my Audi. The display is filled with garbage I don't care about. I do not care in the slightest about my engine RPM and yet it takes up almost half of the display. But that is just visual. A lot of the physical buttons still felt the same and were next to each other so you had to look down to find it and change something. Most people sitting in the car couldn't figure it out, but had little trouble figuring out the Tesla display
Most of the time I prefer the touch screen on our Model Y but there are some things that BADLY need a physical controls:
* Defrost/defog/AC
* Wipers (the Auto mode is hilariously terrible)
* The god damn glove box
* The back seat lights (I have kids and need to look back there often)
> I do not care in the slightest about my engine RPM and yet it takes up almost half of the display.
Kinda meta, but this sentence was trippy AF to read. Engine RPM is something quite valuable to me as a driver, even in my CVT automatic subaru. It's a direct link to the heart of the engine - to know how hard I'm pushing it.
It's still possible to redline an engine (especially in an Audi), and knowing how close you are is important. It's especially important in winter, since not paying attention to your engine's RPMs when you're trying to get un-stuck is a great way to start a car fire.
I suspect you're somewhat unique. I can't think of a single time in the past decade I have looked at my RPM and cared. I doubt a large majority of people care either.
In any case I don't think it needs to be a massive round dial the size of my fist. It could be a small bar next to a text only MPH/KPH display that goes up and turns red.
You could probably draw a parallel to computers. At one time, toggling in boot code using switches to get your machine running was a necessary skill. Not to mention writing your own code to get anything done. And many years after the "toggling in boot code" was a thing of the past, you still had to set jumpers and dip switches on hardware add-in cards on your computer (IRQ, I/O address, etc). Today many don't even need a keyboard on your computer (many people get by with just a tablet or phone for most / all of their computing needs).
> Today many don't even need a keyboard on your computer
And yet tablets/phones offer software keyboards because they're not obsolete yet. But that's a tangent, and I get your point.
And it's not an unreasonable point. But we're not there with cars yet. At least not those whose engines still include a link between the accelerator and the engine.
For example, I can see why knowing your RPM in a hybrid would be useless, since the motor/engine combination is entirely controlled by a computer (I still wish it was there, perhaps only because I'm used to having that information, and I feel poorly equipped to drive the car well without it).
But in an ICE vehicle, even a modern one, you still have surprising amount of direct control over the RPM. You also have control (or at least pseudo-control) over the operation of the transmission in most automatics. Even my CVT Subaru has the ability to override the CVT and set my own gear.
All this means that you can still operate the vehicle at or above the "unsafe for the engine" line... You still need insight into how quickly the engine is turning over.
I also hated my Audi. The display is filled with garbage I don't care about. I do not care in the slightest about my engine RPM and yet it takes up almost half of the display. But that is just visual. A lot of the physical buttons still felt the same and were next to each other so you had to look down to find it and change something. Most people sitting in the car couldn't figure it out, but had little trouble figuring out the Tesla display
Most of the time I prefer the touch screen on our Model Y but there are some things that BADLY need a physical controls:
* Defrost/defog/AC
* Wipers (the Auto mode is hilariously terrible)
* The god damn glove box
* The back seat lights (I have kids and need to look back there often)