The Impact of Tangibility in the Input of the Secondary Car Controls: Touchscreens vs. Physical Buttons

The way car controls are displayed has been changing over time, as physical controls are being replaced by touchscreens and touch interfaces. This allows the creation of a more clean and aesthetically pleasing interface and reduces costs, but also creates the potential to increase the drivers’ distraction and error as controls may be harder to find and use. This paper presents an evaluation of driver performance in the context of a laboratory simulation of an in-car, on road driving study, that compares driver reaction time and number of errors while using physical buttons versus a touchscreen interface. The study was conducted with 20 participants, performing the same tasks in both simulations but with different interfaces. The results concluded that the type of interface impacts reaction time and greatly impacts the number of errors made by the driver in it, as well as, in the road. The data analysis showed that the reaction time to the touch screen was significantly higher and 80% of the participants commited errors in it, compared to only 20% on the physical buttons. The driving performance of the participants was also substantially impacted by the touchscreen, when compared to the response pad. These results raise important questions about the fact that touchscreens are not the best solution in terms of safety. It is true that in terms of possible configurations, touchscreens give great freedom to car manufacturers, but at the expense of road safety.