I've always found it odd that people would prefer an all-touch panel in a car. I find the knobs and buttons to be useful because they offer tactile feedback. I don't have to look away from the road to turn my volume up or to switch a track. The car is one of the few places where knobs/buttons make sense to me. Maybe I'll be eating my words in a few years.

Odd, I've had the exact opposite reaction. I will say from a functional point of view, it's excellent and feature packed. But from an aesthetic and consistency point of view, it still has a long way to go.

For example, it's as if there are actually 4 different UI's that share almost nothing [instrument cluster ui, center console ui, google maps ui, garmin ui (yes, there are two different navs)], each of which has it's own set of controls with a unique style.

That said, it's a great start (given they're such a new company and the ui is designed from scratch), and I'm excited to see what they'll have in store in the future.

Maybe it is just that UI from all other companies isn't that good, and everybody is amazed at something that doesn't suck.

That's the biggest thing in design.

If you're wondering what a "navy stem" is, it's really "nav system". They screwed that up when they quoted the original article.

Four suggestions: 1. Lenticular screen for a passenger's detailed view. 2. ?Infrared? sensor detecting which side is using it. 3. Anchor/dedicate screen space to controls. 4. Haptics with physical reference points. All should be relatively cheap to implement.