These days automatic climate control is usually pretty good. I've been using ACC since my 2000 Honda Accord EX. The only climate control feature I routinely mess with on my cars is to turn on the defroster, which at least for the cars I drive still have physical buttons. Other than that the climate control stays on automatic fan, automatic temp, and I rarely even adjust the temperature. On one of my cars even my heated seats and heated steering wheel come on automatically. Having manual climate controls leads to more distractions for me, as then I'm having to actually change controls.
> vent direction
I definitely agree this is pretty ridiculous. I don't quite get why its better, are cars with this feature automatically repositioning vents at times? I truly don't understand the value and agree with you on this. I shouldn't need a menu to open/close or reposition a vent.
> volume, fwd, back on music
Most cars have these on the steering wheel. The steering wheel controls really should be the driver's primary way of manipulating the stereo instead of taking a hand off the wheel. IMO putting the stereo controls on the touch screen ends up making me less distracted, as it essentially forces me to use the wheel and voice controls instead of messing around with controls away from actually driving the car.
Meanwhile, having the actual app available on the large screen means my passenger can dig through playlists easier, switch between apps easier, etc. It also means as we move towards having a large screen that its easier to glance and get a good idea of the map as opposed to having a smaller map in a navigation system.
> Temperature control
These days automatic climate control is usually pretty good. I've been using ACC since my 2000 Honda Accord EX. The only climate control feature I routinely mess with on my cars is to turn on the defroster, which at least for the cars I drive still have physical buttons. Other than that the climate control stays on automatic fan, automatic temp, and I rarely even adjust the temperature. On one of my cars even my heated seats and heated steering wheel come on automatically. Having manual climate controls leads to more distractions for me, as then I'm having to actually change controls.
> vent direction
I definitely agree this is pretty ridiculous. I don't quite get why its better, are cars with this feature automatically repositioning vents at times? I truly don't understand the value and agree with you on this. I shouldn't need a menu to open/close or reposition a vent.
> volume, fwd, back on music
Most cars have these on the steering wheel. The steering wheel controls really should be the driver's primary way of manipulating the stereo instead of taking a hand off the wheel. IMO putting the stereo controls on the touch screen ends up making me less distracted, as it essentially forces me to use the wheel and voice controls instead of messing around with controls away from actually driving the car.
Meanwhile, having the actual app available on the large screen means my passenger can dig through playlists easier, switch between apps easier, etc. It also means as we move towards having a large screen that its easier to glance and get a good idea of the map as opposed to having a smaller map in a navigation system.