Are Touchscreens in Cars Dangerous?
63 comments
·September 20, 2025crazygringo
oneeyedpigeon
> The question is, when is safety legislation going to be passed that prevents them from being used for any routine adjustments while driving.
We already have this exact legislation in the UK.
null
JustExAWS
The cars I have had don’t let you change BT settings or many other settings and Apple Maps at least doesn’t let you type in an address while you’re driving from the display I don’t think. I’ve done it from my phone as a passenger.
LoganDark
It's an Apple thing to limit keyboard access when the car is moving. Android Auto doesn't have it.
thanhhaimai
Android Auto also doesn't let you type while driving. Source: I was the one who wrote the system UI and Keyboard integration. It's still there last time I checked.
lazystar
> Why is there not legislation for this already?
Cars that dont kill their drivers are more likely to have repeat customers; i.e. other factors besides legislation will force car manufacterers to shift their designs back to this approach. My 2024 CRV has exactly what you describe.
mort96
The fraction of car owners who die every year is relatively tiny. The fraction of car owners who die due to their own mistakes, where those mistakes were caused by the car, is even smaller. It's a segment of the market that is safe to ignore, financially speaking.
NeotokyoFan
Survivorship bias, information asymmetry and product design is at play here.
100% rational and 100% informed consumers do not exist. There's both information asymmetry between manufacturers and consumers. I'm sure there's man fatal accidents that can be traced back to faulty components and improper design that gets covered up by manufacturers. The Volkswagen emissions scandal was just easily measurable.
Everyone likes it that way. Consumers are attracted to features, gimmicks and marketing because that's what works for marketing and sells. No one wants to buy a "900% less accidents than others" car. But everyone wants a bluetooth and wifi enabled car with seat subscriptions. Besides, what's a rational consumer gotta do? They gotta get up at 06:30 and make breakfast for little Timmy and take him to daycare. They need a new car by the end of the month so they better choose between big touch screen or little touch screen with a control knob.
If I can't get a dumb TV, I just don't buy a dumb TV or watch any TV at all. But you can't not travel by car.
RobinL
If that were the case they'd be no need for seatbelt laws
unglaublich
Cars don't kill their drivers typically, they kill people outside of the vehicle.
derriz
The other factors being that enough people get killed so that a shrinking market share forces their management decide to change their car designs?
I have a libertarian streak when it comes to drugs, porn/prostitution, free speech, patent law, etc. but in this case I’m perfectly fine with governments “getting involved” to ensure that I can shop for a vehicle without becoming a random sample in a statistical study of car safety. Especially if a possible outcome is my preventable death.
mitthrowaway2
Cars kill more than only their customers. Can we at least have legislation to prevent cars from killing the people in front of them, who were never customers to begin with? Somehow we have laws requiring passenger airbags, but not pedestrian airbags...
cramcgrab
If you don’t like it don’t buy it. Heard the same arguments back when the iPhone came out.
foobarchu
This doesn't work if the entire market has converged, which it has. It's very similar to telling people who don't want a smart TV to "just buy something else", because that limits you to used options.
Used is great, but it means you aren't participating in the market and manufacturers will not account for you. In other words, you literally cannot "vote with your wallet". This is coincidentally also a big reason why monopolies and duopolies are bad.
crazygringo
You know, seatbelts were also once optional, and something like less than 10% of people got them with their cars.
When it comes to safety regulations, it's definitely not "if you don't like it don't buy it".
Also, if you're distracted and get in a crash, you're not the only one who dies. It's your passengers and the people in the car you collide with that might die as well.
II2II
> It's your passengers and the people in the car you collide with that might die as well.
The people within automobiles are the people who I am least concerned about since they are encased by a machine that is engineered to ensure their safety. It's people outside of vehicles I'm most concerned about. Their only protection is their own wits.
lokar
That's not a very good argument when we very directly socialize the risks of operating motor vehicles on public roads.
Your poor judgment impacts me, so I get a say
zeta0134
It's becoming increasingly more difficult to find cars that don't pull this nonsense, as removing physical controls (in favor of a fiddly awful touch OS) is a cost saving measure during manufacturing.
... also, whether I purchase it or not makes little difference if I am the pedestrian killed by some other driver who was sold an unsafe vehicle.
dghlsakjg
Unequivocally, yes. They are absolutely dangerous.
Anything that takes attention away from driving increases danger.
Are they more dangerous than older interfaces? My feeling is overwhelmingly yes, but I would be willing to see a study or hear arguments that some touchscreens are an improvement. A touch interface is fine (not great) as long as it never changes. As soon as you have to search for a control or menu you are dividing your attention away from driving.
whartung
The reason they're dangerous is not because you have to interact with them, per se, its simply because they provide to much information that takes a lot of cognitive processing to interpret.
Specifically, text. Reading is "hard". Even things as simple as the title of the song on the radio. Especially when the text changes.
I have a modern LCD on my motorcycle, a BMW, that uses a WonderWheel (rotate to scroll up/down, and push or pull for right/left click) as an interface. It's very reminiscent of The Onions MacBook Wheel[0]. It is absolutely dangerous to use while riding. It's a cognitive black hole.
Obviously, the LCD is not alone in this case, the interaction pushes it all up to eleven. But the old school car interface was numbers and small words, and, eventually icons. Consider changing the temperature in a car, for me, I'd shove the hot/cold slider around until the air coming the from the vent was comfortable vs clicking up and down and deciding "do I want 72 or 73?".
And, yea, maybe it's just me. Perhaps I alone am a hazard when interacting with these things. So, maybe it's not fair for me to project my experiences to the population at large.
birdman3131
So I don't personally find text hard to read or very much focus impacting.
However, it is very person dependent. Personally, I am one of the fastest readers I know.
It's also day dependent. I've had days where my ability to focus switch is significantly impaired.
The big issue is that while there are people that touch screens are not going to impair their driving, you can't gear your system to them.
You have to aim it at the lowest common denominator.
Personally, I am a fan of my current vehicle which while being at 2015 because it's one of the police interceptors still has the basic ish radio. And has twist knobs for volume, tune, fan speed and temperature.
And while I probably wouldn't mind having the actual Ford sync stuff, I don't find myself missing it either.
cramcgrab
Based on the data, no https://www.tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport
dommer
The report seems focused more on crash rates, accident involvement, rates with Autopilot / Full Self-Driving vs without, and active/passive safety systems. Has zero insight into touchscreen and their safety issues. Also from the car manufacturer not independent and isn’t without bias.
4ndrewl
That data doesn't seem to be talking about the same thing - ie touchscreens vs physical controls.
giantrobot
Even a fixed touch UI is dangerous. You can't brace your hand easily to hit a touchscreen and your hand will bounce around while driving. Hitting the wrong button is as or more distracting than having to search for a control. Then there's the shitty UIs with small buttons that are hard to hit accurately even at a dead stop. It seems like every touch screen UI takes all the sins of modern crappy web design and turns it all to 11.
They're just terrible UX for the inside of a vehicle you're driving.
ncr100
Touchscreens are like "secret handshakes":
When driving I may need to fine-tune a setting in a range, OR seek a specific touch- or switch-point amongst a field of identically sized levers or buttons.
My solution is to seek an anchor point with my hand while other fingers do the work. I like hanging my hand on physical knob controls, e.g. for volume, in a non-input direction and without motivating force to change the underlying value.
The problem with anchoring is that my arms jiggle like bouncy bridges, when driving over any kind of bump. This external force disrupts my solution. It can be somewhat solved by tighter grip on the knob or non-input region of the control.
Additional problems come from having touch-screens - they create an extra physical problem of reducing the anchor-safe areas on the dashboard.
And, I workaround touch-screen's problem of "need to anchor" vs "can't touch without committing to change" by tenting my hand on dead-zones of the screen, or around the bezel or surrounding non-input surface.
So touchscreens, for me, add complexity to using the vehicle as a tool to accomplish the deed. Like "secret handshakes" are to greeting.
jleyank
They're quite difficult to use without looking at them, and I've got better things to look at while driving. Better buttons that don't move and have "presence" than I can feel without looking.
dazc
Physical volume adjustment buttons on the steering wheel are about the only control I feel comfortable using whilst the car is moving. Anything more complex with a touch-screen interface is an accident waiting to happen.
amluto
What about physical buttons off the wheel? A well-designed car might have quite a few: window controls, sound system volume knob, temperature up-down, etc.
In my first car, I could operate the windows, climate control and sound system without taking my eyes off the road at all, although I had to glance briefly at the (fixed) display to see what radio station I was tuned to if it wasn’t obvious.
dazc
Well, yes, there is the obvious stuff although I could say opening windows is not entirely simple unless I'm fully opening or closing.
Old-school radios were a lot more user-friendly with preset station buttons and a tactile volume control that actually felt like it was connected to something.
giantrobot
> What about physical buttons off the wheel? A well-designed car might have quite a few: window controls, sound system volume knob, temperature up-down, etc.
Those controls are typically on some surface of the car your hand is braced on. They're also very simple physical controls with a good amount of tactile feedback. It's hard to fuck up a simple push button window control or AC dial. Even on a bumpy road you'd be hard pressed to have trouble with such controls.
doug_durham
I have two cars with two different button layouts. I have to look at the physical buttons to use them. It's no different for me than a screen.
non_aligned
I would be surprised if that's the case. For commonly-used functions, you quickly learn knob shapes and their general locations. I'm sure you can adjust volume without looking in both cars.
With touchscreens, it's not just that you lose the tactile component, but all these interfaces are modal, with buttons that disappear or move around depending on the screen you're on.
Oh, you're on the radio screen? There's no way to adjust seat heating from here... or if there is one, it's in a different place than on the AC screen.
doug_durham
I'm not arguing the physical buttons "can" be used to have muscle memory so you can use them without looking. What I'm saying is that it isn't a guarantee. The good thing about CarPlay is that the screen interface is the same regardless of the car I'm driving. I get an instinctual level of interaction.
Swenrekcah
I won’t argue with your lived experience but this would make you an extreme outlier.
About 20 years ago, every teenager in the world who had a mobile phone was able to select a contact from their phonebook and type an entire message and send, in class with their phone in their pocket.
This is possible because of physical buttons and a deterministic user interface. The same applies to cars and other control interfaces.
doug_durham
As I said I have two cars from two manufacturers. They have wildly different button layouts. Your example is a teen ager with a "single phone". In my case I have to resist the urge to read the tiny text on the physical button to know what I need to do. I avoid spending enough time in my car to learn the physical layout.
Maro
Anybody who has used a touchscreen and spent an extra moment fiddling on the screen, and then had to adjust the steering knows that touchscreens are dangerous. In my cars touchscreens are only for Android Auto, which is managable, all the core driving stuff is traditional knobs and buttons. I'd never buy a fully touchscreen car like a Tesla. Sitting in them for Uber drives is more than enough for me..
annexrichmond
I find using CarPlay more dangerous than my phone. At least with my phone I’m using a familiar interface and I can use at any angle. With CarPlay my panel is awkwardly positioned, the UI is confusing, and I have to pay far more attention to what I’m doing.
I’m not suggesting at all it’s ok to use your phone while driving, and is unlawful for a good reason. Yet CarPlay, a dumbed down phone bolted to your dash, is totally fine, despite being no more safe IMO
theropost
Interesting point about touchscreens..I think it highlights a bigger issue with “safety” features sometimes backfiring. For example, that relentless beeping when the passenger seat detects weight but it’s just a backpack or groceries. I wonder how many drivers have been more distracted trying to silence the alarm than they would’ve been just ignoring the bag in the first place. Feels like we’ve traded one kind of risk for another. Do they really research this, or is it more of a gimmmic
llboston
Traditional buttons and knobs are not the solution. Voice control with local LLM will be the future.
amatecha
That sounds terrible. I want less computers in my car, not more!
Zanni
Depends enormously on the implementation and use case. My daily driver is a Tesla Model 3, which has a big, beautiful touch screen. But I almost never touch it while I'm driving. Anything I need to control can be handled by voice command ("set temp to 70") or the scroll wheels in the steering wheel. (The one irritating exception is the windshield wipers.)
dfxm12
I was annoyed that to get the safety features on the car I wanted, I had to get a configuration with a touchscreen (ironic, I know).
However, once I took it for a test drive, I was relieved to find that almost every button I want to press while driving can be found on the steering wheel without looking. Only the air con controls are left out.
moepstar
> The one irritating exception is the windshield wipers
Push the wiper button (left stalk) once, adjust with left scrollwheel (either up/down if on a recent firmware or left/right if it’s older than a year or so).
Facelift has a dedicated button on the steering wheel I think and then scroll wheel as well…
JustExAWS
I absolutely hate the Tesla screen and the entire infotainment system. I refuse to buy any car without CarPlay support.
turkishdelight
It isn't just the touch aspect, but also the "ruin your night vision" aspect. Most pedestrians don't carry lights around, or even wear light-colored clothing at night.
Zanni
Tesla screens switch to dark mode at night.
nine_k
Un-paywalled: https://archive.is/u1OqX
In short: various studies show that touchscreens draw attention of the driver for longer, so they are more dangerous at speed.
European agencies noticed and started requiring physical dedicated switches for certain most important functions to get a full safety rating.
Car makers also gradually revert to physical switches, and also push voice control for certain functions.
macrolime
Voice control is much much much worse than touch screens. You have to try 10-20 times to spell out a command before it maybe does want you want, and that is if you're incredibly lucky
nine_k
That's weird. I never ever had trouble with voice menus on the phone, and I bet that phone lines are worse than what you can have in a car, and the processing resources spent on recognition should not be large.
ghaff
Voice control is sufficiently finicky that I wouldn’t want to rely on it but it can help for things like navigation changes.
bilsbie
Something like Tesla could improve on this by having a shortcuts type system the user could set up.
For example on nice days I want to vent the outside air into the car instead of ac or heat and it’s a good five+ buttons to click.
> An analysis published in 2020 by the Transport Research Laboratory, a British organisation, found that touchscreens impaired a driver’s reaction time more than driving over the legal alcohol limit.
The question isn't whether they're dangerous, anymore.
The question is, when is safety legislation going to be passed that prevents them from being used for any routine adjustments while driving. I.e. windshield wipers, AC, change volume, skip to next track, etc.
Like it's fine if you still use them to input a GPS destination, change long-term car settings, connect a Bluetooth device, etc.
But we need to separate out the actions routinely used during driving and legislate physical controls. Why is there not legislation for this already?