Centre Console Screens (2022 Focus)

[cwhaley]

My wife has the new 2022 Focus (lease car with work) which she had just before maternity leave started. I often drive it and it's okay, but I find the huge screen above the centre console a massive distraction. The bright light, complicated touch screen contols and various messages that pop up randomly distract from focusing on the road. These screens seem a real step backwards.

Anybody else find them annoying (or know how to disable them on this model?)

My daily car is a 2001 Peugeot 406. Everything I need to control from there (the heating and the radio) can be done without lifting my hand off the gear knob or eyes off the road. Actual buttons I can feel and get a physical response from! The other car is a 1964 Singer and there about five controls all with large switches

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Have you looked in the owners manual? Would have thought you can just turn it off.

 

[cwhaley]

First thing I did -- nothing in there, sadly. Only option mentioned is to put it into a 'dim' display mode, which still means having a slightly less bright TV screen stuck on the dashboard!

 

[Burnerman]

You're not alone....my bike - a 20 plate Triumph Tiger 900 GT - has a choice of four different dashboard styles, and naturally they can be coloured to 'suit your mood of the day'
It tells me what date it needs to see a garage (as well as the mileage)....that's over due as I did it myself but can't reset the service indicator so there's alarms and lights flashing everywhere. Triumph will sort that for £70.
On the display I like, there's a large digital speedo and a large digital gear display and a rev counter in the form of a line through a graph - but if I want to see how many miles I've covered I have to change to display number 2.
Crackers! By the time I've flicked through all of the options, I'm in the ditch anyway
John

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Mine serves as satnav, radio, CD//DVD display, digiTV, handsfree display for phone, and reverse camera display. No, I don't find it distracting, I usually have the satnav display on most of the time when driving.

 

[cwhaley]

You're not alone....my bike - a 20 plate Triumph Tiger 900 GT - has a choice of four different dashboard styles, and naturally they can be coloured to 'suit your mood of the day'
It tells me what date it needs to see a garage (as well as the mileage)....that's over due as I did it myself but can't reset the service indicator so there's alarms and lights flashing everywhere. Triumph will sort that for £70.
On the display I like, there's a large digital speedo and a large digital gear display and a rev counter in the form of a line through a graph - but if I want to see how many miles I've covered I have to change to display number 2.
Crackers! By the time I've flicked through all of the options, I'm in the ditch anyway
John

Yes my Pug tells me I'm overdue a service as I do it myself, too. The last lease I see drivers all the time sat in traffic (or worse, driving!) flicking through the screen of their car, swiping through various screens and menus -- probably just changing the radio station! How that's different to a phone mounted on the dash I do not understand.

Really refined technology, but there has to be a better application of it than in direct view of a driver or rider.

 

[cwhaley]

Mine serves as satnav, radio, CD//DVD display, digiTV, handsfree display for phone, and reverse camera display. No, I don't find it distracting, I usually have the satnav display on most of the time when driving.

The SatNav is good I'll agree -- my old (but newer) Focus had one and it was nice to have it integrated, but I could switch it off. Reverse camera good for things you can't see from the rear window.

As for the DVD player, it's illegal to drive with it on so it's another advancement in technology without thought toward safety. I'm certainly not going to sit in the car with the engine off watching a DVD. My wife will connect her phone to it, and the screen updates while she's using it (as a passenger) so there's a constant array of apps and widgets moving around on the screen. Not sure older units were like this.

 

[RandomGrinch]

I can blank mine if necessary, but don't find my screen too distracting.
But having the only heating controls on the screen, is a definite step backwards and verges on dangerous!

When I connect my phone, I use Android Auto, set permanently to 'night mode' and that provides a suitably subdued experience - this might be worth a try?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

As for the DVD player, it's illegal to drive with it on so it's another advancement in technology without thought toward safety. I'm certainly not going to sit in the car with the engine off watching a DVD.

The digi TV and DVD only work when handbrake on.

 

[cwhaley]

I can blank mine if necessary, but don't find my screen too distracting.
But having the only heating controls on the screen, is a definite step backwards and verges on dangerous!

When I connect my phone, I use Android Auto, set permanently to 'night mode' and that provides a suitably subdued experience - this might be worth a try?

I'll try that, didn't think of it from the phone end of things. The father in law had to turn his phone right up on his Insignia as the call volume was always uncontrollable from the car. The thing with the heating controls is that I have to have my arm lifted up dealing on with that action, whereas on 'old fashioned' cars everything is in reach of the gear stick. Going down a bumpy road surface makes touch-screen usage a bit tricky, too

The digi TV and DVD only work when handbrake on.

Yes (although it's really easy to bypass it, as many do!), but I can't see the need to sit inside a stationary car watching TV.

 

[RandomGrinch]

I'll try that, didn't think of it from the phone end of things.

To force Android Auto to remain in dark mode takes a little bit of fiddling, but it's not complicated:

If you'd rather force the light or dark theme across all of Android Auto, you can do so with a trip to Android Auto's developer settings. Just like the standard Android developer options, Android Auto also includes a hidden menu with extra settings.

On Android Auto's options page, scroll down to the bottom and you'll see a field called Version. Tap this several times until you see a prompt to enable developer options. Accept this and you'll now be able to access Android Auto developer mode.

To show these settings, open the three-dot Menu at the top-right and choose Developer settings. Here, you'll find several new options. While most of them aren't useful for normal users, one of them is. Tapping Day/Night allows you to choose Car-controlled, Phone-controlled, Day, or Night for Android Auto's theme.

 

[Avocet]

I don't find the actual brightness a problem, but having controls on a touchscreen is the work of the Devil himself! I can't believe the EU Commission is working on a "Driver Distraction and Attention Warning" regulation, whilst still allowing manufacturers to put vehicle controls on a bloody touchscreen! I'm aware of one anecdote of a fatality because someone was trying to alter the delay on his intermittent wipers and it was "buried" about three menu levels down, on the touchscreen!

The thing is, they're cheap. If you're going to spend out on a display for the satnav anyway, adding "switches" to it, is simply software. You don't have to spend money tooling up for actual, physical, "clicky buttons" (or the wiring and associated connectors to and from them). Yet the tactile feedback of the "click" is just so important to the driver.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The thing is, they're cheap. If you're going to spend out on a display for the satnav anyway, adding "switches" to it, is simply software. You don't have to spend money tooling up for actual, physical, "clicky buttons" (or the wiring and associated connectors to and from them). Yet the tactile feedback of the "click" is just so important to the driver.

A descent sized touchscreens are OK, if you can devote all of you attention to them, on car dashboards, even for a passenger to operate on the move- they are terrible. I'm now a regular via WhatApp, and I do my best to avoid typing on it, on a touch screen. Rather I wait until I am in front of the laptop keyboard to do it.

 

[cwhaley]

A descent sized touchscreens are OK, if you can devote all of you attention to them, on car dashboards, even for a passenger to operate on the move- they are terrible. I'm now a regular via WhatApp, and I do my best to avoid typing on it, on a touch screen. Rather I wait until I am in front of the laptop keyboard to do it.

I prefer using the computer, too to type. I actually have an old non-internet computer that I've been doing family history work on for the past 12 years. The keyboard is a joy to use and not having pop-ups and notifications about updates all the time means I can focus purely on what I'm doing.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I prefer using the computer, too to type. I actually have an old non-internet computer that I've been doing family history work on for the past 12 years. The keyboard is a joy to use and not having pop-ups and notifications about updates all the time means I can focus purely on what I'm doing.

Apart from my car's touch screen, the only other touch screen I use regularly is that on my phone, but I hate it with a vengeance - my fingers and thumbs are just far too big to peck on the correct keyboard letters. Often as not, I trigger the wrong letters.