HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from A New Car UI: How touch screen controls in cars should work Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

A New Car UI: How touch screen controls in cars should work

Matthaeus Krenn
Demos
YouTube
4 HN users recommended this demo6 months2017–2023 score 6.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Repeatedly cited in car touchscreen debates as an elegant, sensible alternative to distracting automotive UIs.

Matthaeus Krenn presents a concept for car touchscreen UI where the screen controls only one thing at a time, designed to suit driving. A tablet prototype accompanies the short demo.

“I feel compelled to share a video, now 9 years old, that shows how touch screens could be accommodated with sensible design in cars.” (HN, 2023)

1 strong recommendations · 5 recommendations · Demos

6 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@ssalka Apr 2023 Strongly recommends
on HN thread The Glorious Return of a Humble Car Feature
I feel compelled to share a video, now 9 years old, that shows how touch screens could be accommodated with sensible design in cars. The UIs we are used to on our phones are not suitable for driving, but we could make something that is. [this video]
Shows touchscreens accommodated with sensible design suited to driving.
@cyberferret May 2017 Recommends
on HN thread Audi's logo rebrand
Read more
Whew, I was glad to see they hadn't completely scrapped the iconic 4 rings. Nice to see them making all their branding assets available like this though - right down to the icon sets etc. That would make third party apps or in car navigation systems etc. conform to the same look and feel. On that note - I wonder how soon it will be before car manufacturers have 'app stores' for add ons to their internal systems. Wouldn't it be cool, for instance, to have a custom navigation app that you could install in your Tesla to supplement the factory installed one? For example - this engineer's proof of concept for a touch screen interface in a car [0]. If he could brand it with the Audi graphic assets and pitch it to them, I am sure it will go a long way to them incorporating it in their future vehicles... [0] - [this video]
Engineer's proof-of-concept touchscreen interface for cars.
@cyberferret Jun 2017 Recommends
on HN thread Redditors design worst volume sliders possible
I'd love to see the antithesis of this collection - whereby smart UI designers try and improve the current audio controls to move away from the old style knobs/sliders, to something far better represented by todays interfaces, such as this concept for a car audio control: [this video]
Concept for car audio control beyond knobs and sliders.
@cyberferret Jul 2018 Recommends
on HN thread Why touchscreens in cars don’t work
Every time I see posts about car touch screen interfaces, and the associated UX problems, I am reminded of this video I saw a few years ago [0]. I think it is an elegant solution (only allow ONE thing to be controlled by the touch screen at a time), however will require a lot of learning and remembering to get used to all the different gestures. [0] - [this video]
Elegant solution: touchscreen controls only one thing at a time.
@hndamien Sep 2019 Recommends
on HN thread Porsche Taycan revealed: $150,900 base price, 0-60 MPH in 3 seconds
It doesn't help that automotive latency for touch screens is incredibly bad. It it had smartphone level response maybe it would be a better starting point for comparison. I'd love to see something like this, even in a Tesla. [this video]
A car touchscreen interface the commenter would love to see in cars.
@lbayes Nov 2021 Recommends
on HN thread Some new BMWs won't have touchscreens thanks to chip shortage
I have a 2015 Audi A3. I didn't want the brand at all, but loved (and still love) the dial control. I've been dreading getting a new car specifically because I do not want the touch screen. Fortunately, I still have a few years left of good life in this machine, otherwise I'd jump on one of those immediately! I still wish something like this UI would have caught on. [this video]
UI the commenter wishes had caught on in cars.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close