I think at this point, it’s pretty well established that we, as a species, are just about done with having all of our car’s controls accessible via menus and icons on a touchscreen. Opening glove boxes? No one wants that on a touchscreen. Vent adjusting controls? Just keep them physical. I feel like automakers have tried this, pushed it pretty hard, and the public has spoken, saying knock it off, already. I suppose that’s why I find this touchscreen-based control on the recent Maserati GranCabrio to be so very confusing and disappointing, and so I’m going to kvetch about it to you, because that’ll solve everything.
The controls I’m talking about are the ones to open and close the convertible top, and not only did Maserati decide to put these controls on a touch screen, they also decided to use a type of gestural control that requires even more unnecessary focus and attention, and I think they’re even deluding themselves about how it all works.
Not having spent much time in Maseratis lately, I only just found out about these controls thanks to our pal Doug’s video, which I’ve cued up to the appropriate spot. You’re welcome:
See what’s going on there? Perhaps taking a cue from hookup apps, Maserati has decided that to open and close the convertible top on the GranCabrio you need to touch an icon on a bar at the side of the touchscreen window, which then brings up a profile view of the car you’re currently sitting in, and from there you swipe left or right to get the roof to go up or down.
Here’s another video of it in action:
I don’t understand why anyone thought this was an improvement over something like the usual rocker-type switch that most other modern convertibles use, like, say, this Jaguar F-Type:
This touchscreen-based finger-swipe method requires an extra step (clicking the cabrio button to bring up the image of the car), and requires a lot more visual focus and attention to use than just feeling around with your hand for a little rocker switch like that one above and pulling or pushing it. The Jaguar method there doesn’t take any visual attention, really and does the job just fine. So what’s the advantage of doing this all on a touchscreen?
Maserati seems a little delusional about this method, too. Look what they say in their press release about the car:
“No need to take your eyes off the road?” I’m calling bullwastes on that one. There’s no way you’re finding that on-screen button by feel because it literally has no feel, and once you get to the picture of the car, you’ll need to use your eyes to see where to swipe. And it takes 14 seconds? Remember, you have to be holding your finger on that screen the whole time, so maybe you’ll be able to not move your finger even a tiny bit at speeds of 30 mph while driving and somehow not looking at that screen, but I’m pretty skeptical.
I’m in good company, too, because Maserati’s own owner’s manual for the GranCabrio says don’t do this while driving, dummy:
The manual says to only do it when stationary, right there in big red letters. But you know how you probably could do this procedure pretty safely at 30 mph or so? If the control was a damn little switch you could just feel with your finger that didn’t rely you to look at anything at all while it’s in use.
So, what did Maserati accomplish with this control? Requiring you to focus your visual attention on a screen to swipe your finger across a picture of the car you’re driving just so it can feel like swiping on a hot person you want to bone, or something like that?
This is stupid. Maserati should feel a little stupid as a result, and consider changing this dumbassery to a nice little tactile switch that you don’t even need to look at.
Enough already with this crap.
Swipe right to make your car payment
Swipe left to initiate trade in
I get it, as long as you have a full time convertible top co-pilot.
I rather like my simple toggle switch I use to raise and lower my convertible top. Aside from lacking back lighting, it’s simple and works like a charm.
I for one love it. In 10-20 years, high-power luxury cars from the “what the fuck were they thinking with this touchscreen garbage” era will be the ones I can actually afford.
<fast forward 4 years>
INTRODUCING the new 2030 Tesla Model Z! Now featuring steering “yoke” touch pad with a horizontal capacitive touch bar for steering and vertical touch bar for speed! In the center of the pad is an image of a steering yoke and a gas pedal that follow your inputs — it’s so fun! But you never need them, because all you have to do is set it to FSD beta gamma, then keep your two hands within one inch of each bar at all times in case real world events occur. Don’t sneeze!
Look sometimes you’re driving down the road and you want the top open 65%, no more, no less. This finally lets you do that.
Sounds like an teaching opportunity for you and your dog. They certainly could do it while at speed.
Well, I guess this is the touch screen equivalent to Italians talking with their hands.
I don’t know about that recommending to do it only when stopped. Sure my 60’s era convertible will let you operate the top with the vehicle in motion but all the 90’s and up Chrysler and Ford convertibles I’ve experienced the top will only operate with the vehicle in park. Yes they are/were all automatics, not sure what they do with the Manual transmission vehicles, though since it is all done by computers it would be pretty easy to poll the ABS or PCM for the vehicle speed and only operate it if the speed is zero.
This has to go full circle, right? Like by the mid 2030s “all analog” is going to be an option people will pay extra for.
That is truly awful UI.
Reminds me of a competition to come up with the worst possible interface. One entrant was for a GPS-tied volume control – the farther you got from the equator, the louder the sound. Of course the downside of this concept is latitude maxes out at the poles, so the volume could never get above 90% of what was available. (And, of course, you had to drive to the equator to effectively mute the radio.)
In this case, navigating to through a menu, then swiping AND HOLDING until the roof completes its motion is almost as bad. I can see people dying because of the distraction.
I hated holding the button in my Miata so much I spent several hundred dollars for an aftermarket black box to turn it into a one-touch operation, and Mazda, to their credit, eventually made it a standard feature in newer models.
This would be a deal breaker as far as me buying that Maserati.
I assume legal insisted on that so if you do something dumb you can’t blame it on them. I don’t know how one ends up doing something dumb with a convertible top, but I can imagine panicking and not being able to make it stop. So making ppl hold the rocker switch I can understand. But yeah, this is a lot of extra work to make a worse experience (and save $0.34 per car vs using a button, which we know is the real reason).
The “something dumb” with a convertible top is driving too fast before it’s latched or fully retracted. Exceed the threshold and the top stops moving. Go too much faster and the wind wrecks your top.
Different manufacturers set different limits, and it may even vary by model.
I think there was a particular Ferrari model that could do up to about 30 mph, whereas I think another manufacturer that set the limit at 6 mph, if I recall correctly. Those are the extremes I can think of for the cars that allow vehicle movement while the top is in motion.
I think I can do up to about 15 with my PRHT. It lets me raise or lower the top at a stop light without having to impede traffic, or get to the street while backing down the driveway.
I watched that Demuro video. That convertible top control is asinine… But what’s even dumber (as noted by Doug) is the $200k+ price tag. I don’t think anyone is gonna be dropping that kinda coin on a Maserati in this day and age.
Well they certainly wouldn’t with a convertible that opens the old fashioned way.
Not without buying a biturbo first. Then dropping $100k fixing it. And buying a 911 to drive while it’s being fixed.
I can see people dropping $200k on a Maserati pretty easily. But on a Maserati that’s mechanically equivalent to a $55k Mustang? Not really.
$200k on a Maserati? Are we talking what the Buy Here/Pay Here makes on a Maserati? Ooh, paying that much for one. No.
Could be worse. Steer by swipe! Control your ride temple run style.
That actually sounds fun!
God, no – please don’t give Tesla any ideas for their FSD override!
Didn’t some OEM try to make joystick controlled cars a thing in the 50’s and they realized it was essentially un-drivable?
I believe Saab made a car with a side stick instead of a steering wheel. There’s a video of Clarkson driving it.
Well how ‘bout that! I learned about it on The Old Site:
Modulating throttle while turning would be tricky, and the range of motion of a joystick would demand fairly small, precise movements, which aren’t always easy to achieve in intense driving situations.
Read More: https://www.jalopnik.com/why-the-joystick-controlled-car-will-never-die-or-actua-1525301418/
I keep forgetting Maserati exists. Then I see one and I go “Wow, they’re still in business. I wonder how.” And now they do this. SMH
Meh, its a Maserati, its going to fail relatively quickly, hopefully in the closed position, and the owner will just be left with a permanent worse coupe
Also, I feel like power tops probably shouldn’t exist at all, have a simple mechanism that can be unlatched, pulled into place, and latched in seconds, with one hand
Knowing Maserati, it’ll fail in the middle of a deployment, and you’ll be driving a sailboat.
Failboat
A couple of years ago I was driving down the street and there was a BMW convertible with the top opened about a foot making one hell of a scoop. It was a city street so the speeds aren’t that fast but still. I’m guessing he was doing it because it broke while going up or down.
Miata Is Always The Answer
+1 came here for this, left satisfied
Hurr hurr power tops hurr hurr
To be fair, a decent percentage of the people buying convertible GTs from Maserati are probably too arthritic to use a manual top. And the rest are simply too posh.
…Oh my gosh, Maserati is the Corvette of Italy!
You just need a RIO to operate the controls while you pilot the vehicle. Talk to me, Goose. The touchscreenification of everything sucks.