zlacker

>>heshie+(OP)
I can only imagine Mazda's stake in this is that the OSS project is doing something that Mazda would like to monetize. Otherwise why limit a project that's making people fell better about their car purchase?

The worst thing to happen to home automation was companies trying to lock customers into their ecosystem without greater interoperability.

>>madrox+Wa
I can't even use the android auto touchscreen in my miata because you can't make it disabled enough at speed so they just disabled the entire thing. Even the android auto dongles that hack that kind of thing I haven't had success with.

I would bet this is some overzealous safety executive somewhere.

>>pwilli+nm
ND2 Miata owner here, exact same complaints. I believe there are several models in Mazda's range with the frankly staggeringly annoying behaviour of disabling the touch screen once the car is moving.

In lieu of the touchscreen while cars wheels are rolling, Mazda expect you to use this odd rotary controller in the center console, on the assumption it will be safer.

It's not safer at all though - you have to turn the rotary controller and watch CarPlay or android auto do the equivalent of a tab key in the browser until it highlights the correct field, then press it in to select. It genuinely takes my eyes off the road longer than just stabbing a touch screen with my finger, as you have to make sure you have got the rotary controller to highlight the right button etc - you can overshoot just like tab in a browser.

What's even funnier to me is that Mazda have no qualms about putting a switch to disable stability and traction control instantly right next to the steering wheel on a light weight rear wheel drive sports car; burnouts and oversteer are apparently perfectly acceptable usecases for a Miata, but selecting a song from the touch screen while moving? No way guys...

>>giobox+Fr
Disabling the distracting touchscreens is one of the things that Mazda does right. Pecking at the screen while driving is stupidly dangerous.

Pretty much everything you need can be done with at most a few steps of the commander interface which are easy to learn.

>>izacus+3x
I just rented a Mazda with one of those terrible rotary dials. Something as simple as finding the nearest gas station, which takes like 2 touches on a touch screen, takes several pushes and inaccurate turns of the dial. It turns a 3-second affair into a 30 second nightmare requiring constant distractions and squinting to see which button or field is currently highlighted. It's the worst car UX I've ever experienced, even worse than a Tesla. I'll never buy a car with a system like this. It's suicide.

>>solard+Ry
What are you talking about? It's like push down to select search box, select gas station icon (first in like, one rotation), press again.

If there's an active route, you rotate the dial twice quickly to select the search icon.

That's on Android Auto on my Mazda. It's very similar in the built-in nav system.

And in no case do you have to lean forward to peck for small touch boxes - the controls are naturally at your hand and each move has a tactile click.

Touchscreens are "souicide" as more and more distracted driving research shows.

>>izacus+U21
Sorry but I agree with previous poster too - it's often many rotations, and you have to correct for misses if you overshoot, during which time your eyes are entirely off the road, for longer than just stabbing the touchscreen with a finger would take. Its objectively one of the worst car UIs I've experienced.

I daily miss items with the rotary controller in a way that I never do in any other car with a reasonably implemented touch screen for CarPlay/Android Auto (effectively almost every single new non-Mazda/Tesla vehicle on sale across the entire car industry). I know people who have refused to buy a Mazda that otherwise met their needs solely due to this issue - sectors like the CX-5/CX-9 etc compete in are staggeringly competitive nowadays and customers have a ton of options that all have working touch screens for carplay/android auto on the move.

The Miata, you just have to put up with it, given the cheap roadster market currently consists of the Miata and nothing else.