[RahulNagaraj]

Chevrolet recently unveiled the 2023 Colorado featuring multiple updates, including a fully redesigned cabin. As part of the update, the American carmaker has removed most physical buttons inside the cabin, including that which control's the truck's headlights.



Customers of the 2023 Chevy Colorado will now have to turn on and off the headlights via a sub-menu in the truck's 11.3-inch central touchscreen infotainment display. While the truck does come with automatic headlights, if customers do want to make adjustments they will have to fiddle around with the touchscreen rather than just flicking a switch on the side. Also, if the infotainment fails, customers could lose the ability to control the lights.

Nick Katcherian, Chief Engineer of the 2023 Colorado reasoned that the controls aren't used much since most customers leave the headlights in its auto setting. Also, in the rain, if the wipers are on, the lights turn on automatically. The shift from physical controls to virtual buttons is also said to be to conserve space. The light controls loads on the top part of the infotainment system as part of the legal requirement to always be available.

Katcherian claims that there is no reason to be concerned about any issues, as the team has removed all possible bugs from the infotainment unit. He also stated that software-based switches could help add features to vehicles after they are sold or support optional add-ons. He further stated that virtual switches give customers a lot more flexibility in terms of offering updates in the future, compared to physical switches.

Source: Road&Track

Link to Team-BHP news

[GForceEnjoyer]

The most astounding part to me is the statement that "all possible bugs" have been removed. Talk about tall claims!

Even otherwise, not a good thing to see. At first it was the "convenience" features such as ventilated seats and other A/C stuff being moved to the infotainment, but this is taking it WAY too far. You shouldn't have to fumble around with the touchscreen for something this basic, even if most people would leave the lights on "auto". If you have to turn on the parking lights before exiting the car, you'll now have to remember to dive into the touchscreen to do so, rather than just flicking a switch in a fraction of a second with purely muscle memory. What could the few square centimetres of space freed up be used for anyways?

[msdivy]

Tremendous progress in low-power computing has given the choice to designers to go overboard. The day is not far when they remove the steering wheel and replace it with this screen.

[giri1.8]

I can only imagine what could happen if the head unit crashes or hangs! This also takes away the freedom of switching to better quality aftermarket units. Sadly only minority of informed customers will reject a car such a small but important detail, for the rest this is an another useless feature to show off.

[GTO]

GM must be thinking:

- Auto headlights are provided anyway.

- I believe high beam flash is still via a physical control?

- It's cheaper to move things to the touchscreen, and remove physical parts.

What they don't account for is the failure of the touchscreen, software glitches, long-term reliability and that - when it comes to safety - it's just better to err on the side of safety.

Originally Posted by giri1.8

I can only imagine what could happen if the head unit crashes or hangs!

I don't remember which car (Hector??), but I'd read on the forum about how a family had to endure a highway journey in the scorching heat because their touchscreen malfunctioned. The AC just wouldn't work.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

The shift from physical controls to virtual buttons is also said to be to conserve space. The light controls loads on the top part of the infotainment system as part of the legal requirement to always be available.....further stated that virtual switches give customers a lot more flexibility in terms of offering updates in the future, compared to physical switches.

While I agree that most customers with auto headlights won't ever touch the light controls, it is totally a stupid idea to remove the physical controls. Just cost cutting, rest all are marketing bull. Not sure what they meant with flexibility for the future? What else do you need to do other than switching ON/OFF the lights?

Conserve space??!!! What exactly did they do with the conserved space? Nothing! If they really wanted to conserve space they should have shifted the gear lever to a column mounted lever and put the other buttons on the dashboard and created more useable space in the centre console.

Funny thing is otherwise they have a practical cabin with the physical knobs and buttons intact. Guess it is just a testing move to see if they can continue cutting cost in that area.

[PreludeSH]

So its better to leave it on Auto now so that head unit crash will not impact turning ON when needed. Not sure what kind of crash would not recover with restarting the car.

I like the bit about lights turning ON when wipers turn on either done manually or through rain sensing sensors. This is a feature I hope is made mandatory in India. I see majority driving without lights on even in pouring rains.

[karanddd]

One stop closer to cars becoming more "autonomous" - the software decides when the lights must turn on or off, when you can open the door or not, when the wipers come on etc. The next step will be to take user control away altogether, why should anyone get to decide that they want the wipers off while it's raining or lights off when it's dark? Even driving control technologies are going to restrict what users can do, say prohibiting you from changing lanes if you didn't use your blinker. We're seeing cars go from mechanical machines to electronic devices, and like all devices, what they do and what they don't is outside the end user's control. Modern cars likely allow the manufacturer to be able to track the car down with GPS if they liked, and they would comply and share that information very promptly with the govt if prodded. The automobile as a symbol for human freedom was probably always a flawed idea, but it at least had some truth to it. The modern automobile does not and can not set you free, getting inside one is to embroil yourself into all sorts of measures of control. I dread to think of self-driving cars, I get in and press where I want to go, but for whatever reason suppose the car starts going elsewhere. There really would be nothing I could do about that.

[Elegant]

The more they add electricals, the more problems arise. I think it is better to stick to mechanical switches as it is a pretty known issue of electrical components not ageing well. Also, there are sometimes situations when a manual control over lights or wipers is much more needed and these AI or sensors won't understand them. Also, what if the software fails? The screen goes black like XUV 700? And talking about bugs been removed, a software can never be perfect altogether in my opinion.

[govigov]

There are some areas which mandates that the headlights be turned on even during the day time. If they can integrate such areas into the map, and the map can then trigger the headlamps on these roads, then it would be good.

As such the auto function is pretty good and most of the folks just leave it on auto.

[amol4184]

As ridiculous as it sounds, it has become reality. How long before lights can be turned on only if buyer has "subscribed" to lights? Just drive during the day if you have not opted for lights package.

[carthick1000]

It took traditional OEMS a decade to come to this step. Long way to go!

Tesla model S did it in 2013! But Tesla did it from a first principle engineering design standpoint. These legacy OEMS are trying to cut costs here and there by copying over features. I hope that they implement it well. I think if the implementation is good, it is a welcome move. I have adjusted the auto headlamp option in my model 3, may be 4 or 5 times in the last 3.5 years. That too not while driving, but mostly while standing still.

[FrAgile]

Originally Posted by GTO

- I believe high beam flash is still via a physical control?

- What they don't account for is the failure of the touchscreen, software glitches, long-term reliability and that - when it comes to safety - it's just better to err on the side of safety.

- There is a single stalk to control wipers, indicators as well as the high beam flash.

- What if the owner wants to swap the head unit with some aftermarket touchscreen system? I guess that won't be possible at all, even in Hector. This leaves the owner with no choice.

The system in Hector is not that smooth in it's operation if I am not wrong. If an owner wishes to change the touchscreen system to something better and more responsive 5-7 years down the line, or just to get a better audio output, will that be possible? Given that most of the vehicle setting as well as air con is controlled via the screen.

The only workaround I can think of is manufacturers building a special mobile app to operate the touchscreen or these embedded functions like headlight or AC controls in order to tackle touchscreen malfunctions so that the owner can reach to a safe spot. Still not sure if one can change the touchscreen system of the car.

[nagarjun]

Can't understand this mad fad about touch screens. They malfunction sometime or the other. Recently had gone for the test drive of Octavia, where the AC controls are also partially in the touch screen. The test drive car had a non functioning touch screen and it was not very pleasant experience with no AC running properly.

[CentreOfGravity]

Every time I come across such an article, I become all the more frustrated. Car makers just don't seem to understand the convenience of physical controls in a car. They make tall claims about technological advancements and how the world is evolving, but it is we end users who have to suffer. The worst part is that even though they are well aware of our dissatisfaction with this move, they keep soldiering on. As a BHPian mentioned earlier, the risk of losing a physical steering wheel for a digital one is quite high at this point
If I'm not wrong, Honda is one of the only OEMs to have listened to customer feedback and replaced the touch-based HVAC controls on the 4th gen City with proper physical dials on the 5th gen.