I’d like to offer a possibly controversial alternative viewpoint on this. On a longer time horizon than just the past few years, we saw the introduction of touchscreens for drivers way back in the early 2000s. We just called them smartphones. Before that, rush hour commuters could be spotted reading newspapers, shaving, applying makeup, and eating breakfast while driving. All of those pose real dangers to themselves and others.
My point is that the fundamental issue at hand is more significant than the UI / haptics of the car, but the attention paid by the driver. Humans have already cast their vote on this. As drivers, broadly speaking, we do not want to give the action of driving our full attention. There are simply too many other things vying for our focus.
The solution, in my opinion, is not about the controls in the vehicle. Rather, it’s about removing the distracted driver from the equation altogether and finally mastering the immense challenge of truly autonomous vehicles. We are at a point in history where the UI/UX has advanced faster than true self-driving. If the latter can catch up, the UI will become a non-issue, the screens will continue to grow, and the driver will merely be an operator.
Maybe there is a sense in which this is an awkward transition period to fully autonomous vehicles. Because you're right, most of us don't want to pay attention to the road, which is boring.
However, we don't know the risk/reward associated with ceding control over our safety and the safety of others to an internet controlled computer. Over time, human controls (and skills) atrophy, so that when another Carrington event happens humans will not be able to recover. It also makes us even more susceptible to hacking attacks - wide-spread use of autonomous vehicles will mean that a sufficiently skilled hacker can kill you from afar. If not with your car, with someone else's.
So, no, I'm not particularly excited giving computers control over my car, my home, my life, even if it seems like a good idea. The downsides are just too substantial, and honestly humans can and should retain some responsibility for their own well-being, on first principle.
> The solution, in my opinion, is not about the controls in the vehicle. Rather, it’s about removing the distracted driver from the equation altogether and finally mastering the immense challenge of truly autonomous vehicles.
So we can remove the physical buttons when we remove the steering wheel, but not before then.
I recommend Adam Something on YouTube. He speaks about this and truly autonomous vehicles frequently on his channel. If you go watch a few of his videos, you'll see we already have the technology to remove the distracted driver, and in fact the act of driving from the equation altogether.
> The solution, in my opinion, is not about the controls in the vehicle. Rather, it’s about removing the distracted driver from the equation altogether and finally mastering the immense challenge of truly autonomous vehicles.
I agree with your overall premise, but this is a strange conclusion. If human drivers are the problem and they cannot be trusted to drive without distractions, it would be far easier and cheaper to fix that by investing in public transit.
The public transit vs individual car ownership discussion is long running and a bit separate. My conclusion was predicated on the assumption that for all the reasons we still have individual car ownership today, we will see that remain as such through the autonomous transition.
It's an interesting comment, but to take it at face value... cars back in 2000 didn't force good drivers to operate unsafe bullshit for mission critical controls.
