Wonder if they need a torque converter still to give it a little more oomph off road.
Also: "It also bucks the high-tech trend of new cars in general. There will be a radio with an AM/FM receiver, Bluetooth connectivity, and an AUX input, but there’s no touchscreen." I hope this becomes a trend. Touchscreens in cars are horrible ux.
Indeed they are. When I'm driving, I need to be able to feel what I'm manipulating; I shouldn't have to take my eyes off the road (or if I do, it should be at an absolute minimum).
A screen on the dashboard controlled by physical buttons/knobs makes a lot more sense if a screen is really necessary. That way, even if I have to look at the screen, at least I can still peripherally see the road.
It's terrible having to input destination names etc without a (screen) keyboard. Screen + knob has been around for ages (e.g my 09 Audi) and it's great for simple things like scrolling radio stations but that's it. So for newer cars - yes it's terrible but there is no option. The safe solution is to stop to use the touch screen, just like you should stop to use the cell phone - but noone does that either. The design should be that there are knobs for a minimum set of features (climate, volume, ...).
Take this to it's extreme and you could make the touch screen read-only when the car is moving unless the passenger seat is occupied.
The new Audi A8 has a haptic feedback touchscreen.
Anyway I'm with you on this. There's a touchscreen in my car and only with some clever finger placing can I tell which part I'm touching. Fortunately I still have physical steering wheel buttons.
Also: "It also bucks the high-tech trend of new cars in general. There will be a radio with an AM/FM receiver, Bluetooth connectivity, and an AUX input, but there’s no touchscreen." I hope this becomes a trend. Touchscreens in cars are horrible ux.