Opinion: It’s official – car touchscreens have gotten too big
Bigger is better, right? But, when it comes to car touchscreens, that maxim doesn't always ring true.
The above image is computer-generated and not an accurate representation of any infotainment display
As every manufacturer looks to create the next best thing with each new car reveal, many turn to bigger and better car touchscreens to entice buyers.
Whether it’s the level of customisation to personalise your car, the amount of features you can play with, or sheer screen size, the technology found in new Australian cars has never been more impressive – or complicated.
The downside to this is that infotainment systems can take away from the key responsibility of driving a car – which is to actually do the driving part.
I was behind the wheel of a GWM Tank 500 recently which, in all respects, is a great car. It’s impressive on-road and off, the cabin’s packed with nifty features to excite drivers and passengers alike, and even the software behind the infotainment display was not a pain point – it worked really well.
But as I was driving home after a long day on camera, I couldn’t help but think its 14.6-inch touchscreen (below) was a bit overkill.
It took up a substantial amount of dashboard, mounted smack-bang in the centre, and the brightness of the screen made it distracting – especially at dusk.
It’s not the only car that has a comically large screen in the cabin front row. Along with its gargantuan physical footprint, the forthcoming Toyota Tundra mounts a 14-inch infotainment display proud of the dash.
So it's true – Americans definitely subscribe to the bigger is better mantra, but is all this screen strictly necessary? When I’m driving something as large as a Toyota Tundra, I don’t need the temptation of a cinema screen immediately to my left.
I liken the advancement in car touchscreen sizes to the plasma screen space race in the early noughties – every year a manufacturer would go one better and increase the pixel real estate, with diminishing returns. Is the now same phenomenon all over again inside our cars.
The awkward part is that they simply don’t need to take up so much space. While it might be visually impressive, if you look at the display on something like the GWM Tank 500, there’s plenty of dead space around icons and in menu screens that needn’t be there.
I don’t want to harp on about pointing fingers, but I think it was Mercedes-Benz that pushed the boundaries with its whopping-great Hyperscreen array (above) when it first launched a few years ago.
There is no doubt it was visually impressive at its unveiling, but with a 17.7-inch main display bolstered by smaller 12.3-inch screens on either side, it’s almost not even worth mentioning the diameter. It spanned from A-pillar to A-pillar and, functionally, it was simply too full-on to be of meaningful use.
These days, it’s very important how a manufacturer can integrate a screen within its surroundings, while remaining aware of factors like brightness and screen content.
The big 15-inch unit fitted to the new 2024 Volkswagen Touareg is larger than the GWM’s, but it’s not nearly as distracting because it’s tucked within the dash and the screen brightness is nowhere near as wearisome.
I do think we’ll reach a tipping point for display sizes in cars before customers start caring less about size bragging rights. To me, the limit sits around the 12.3-inch mark, the size of displays that have become commonplace in Kias, Hyundais, Nissans, and Toyotas.
A 12.3-inch landscape display integrates well within the dashboard and doesn’t overtly distract the driver. I don’t get out of a Hyundai Tucson and want for more screen, so why do some car-makers test the waters?
At the end of the day, with cars as tech-focused as they are in 2024, manufacturers are a part of the problem and need to be cognisant of a driver's information intake. Drivers themselves indeed have the ultimate responsibility in maintaining attention while on the road, but manufacturers have their own part to play in keeping cars as focused as possible.
What do you think? Are in-car infotainment systems getting too big in 2024? Let us know in the comments below.
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