Fully Functional 32 Year Old Touch Screen in a Buick Reatta
youtu.beNotice both the text and graphics. Further in the video he shows how pressing the eject button on the radio screen opens the cassette player. And how diagnostic messages "pop up" on the screen, taking over the screen.
My father had a 1988 Buick with the led speedometer -- nothing like this touch screen. But, we thought it was so hi-tech at the time. He also had a cell phone built into the car -- but we were never allowed to use it because it cost $2+ a minute!
After watching the video again I realized the screen has some kind of digitizer behind it. That was highly unusual for touch screens of the era.
Most touch screens from the 80s were not actually sensing touch; instead they had light beams and sensors in a grid around the screen. Your finger would interrupt the light and the sensors at the x and y axis would determine your finger's placement over the screen.
Is it wrong that I prefer the user interface over some of today's more contemporary automotive touchscreens?
It feels like it was designed with a stylus and ruler vs. some contemporary automotive UI's designed with fingerpaint and a crayon.
It also made it past Y2K, which they surely hadn't intentionally planned for.