Carlos from Spain:

Having all the controls in menus within a tablet screen in the middle of the dash just shows that the maker is not experienced making cars, they are amateurs designed by silicon valley geeks who don't drive. They just want to give the illusion of being modern and different.

Anyone with minimal experience in driving knows that the last thing you want to do while driving is having to distract your attention to operate anything, and a big touch screen with menus is just that, there is a reason why you won't find such arrangements on planes or race cars no matter how modern or futuristic, some things you just need in physical buttons with specific functions, only secondary functions you can have on a screen like the entertainment system for example. 

The reason is simple, you are not in your sofa playing with an iPad, you are driving a vehicle on the public road. The brain cannot multitask, that is a misconception, so the less you take your eyes away from something, the better, the less you have to coordinate your hand-eye to touch something and just feel for it without looking the better, and the less you have to navigate between menus and simply push something the better. There is a reason why no one should ever be texting and driving for example. Distraction is the biggest cause of accidents.

That will only make sense when TRUE autonomous driving is available and you don't have to pay attention to driving. Then it would be fine. But right now that doesn't exist.

Don't you take a quick glance anyway on the button your supposed to push? I would assume most Porsche drivers look at the center console before pushing anything to make sure it is the right button (since there are lot's of them). And while adjusting cabin temperature, don't you look at the digital display to see the temperature and also confirm the desired temperature? You don't do that blind folded, do you Smiley

Since the screen in the Tesla is so responsive and the screen real estate is larger than in any other car, they can allow for quite some spacing between buttons and also implement rather big buttons. This means that the buttons are easy to "hit" even while driving. The most essential stuff is just one click away or managed via steering wheel controls. Like cabin temperature and other things. Even if the software right now already seems to have overcome the most critical things, it will improve vastly over time via OTA just like our smartphones.

It's not a coincidence that everyone who have used the Tesla UI for a while find other systems and implementations to be a big mess. I'm for sure one of those at least.