Many new cars are now coming with touchscreen controls for infotainment systems

While touchscreens are good for most purposes, are they a good idea for in-dash infotainment systems?

With the older systems, a radio channel could be selected using pre-set buttons, or by twirling a knob – easily done by “feel”, without taking eyes off the road.

But with touchscreens this cannot be done without taking eyes of the road, as the touch buttons, being small, take time to be located

Touch screens, when the car is stationary, offer multiple advantages –  browsing,  navigating maps, zooming, shopping, and many others. A touchscreen is also a must to use all the data in a connected car.

But while in motion, touchscreens are best used along with physical buttons, from a safety perspective. We wonder whether there is any data on safety in cars with touchscreens ?

Recently a few articles have appeared stating that bacteria was found on touchscreens being used for self-ordering in restaurants.

But instead of recoiling in horror from the kiosk, we should keep in mind that there are many more surfaces which could have even more bacteria – the door knob you touched while entering the restaurant, the chair handle touched to sit, the currency note exchanged with the parking attendant. Any contact with any person or object leaves us exposed to contamination with bacteria.

What can we do? Restaurants keep cleaning all surfaces with disinfectants; as an additional precaution we can wash our hands or use a hand sanitiser before touching food or even our faces

And keep using the touchscreen to order your food. It is faster, and more fun