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Aptera User Interface
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Aptera User Interface
updated 2 months, 1 week ago
65 Members
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107
Replies
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While I agree with your list of tactile things here, I have to wonder what’s the motivation to touchscreens. I dismiss those here that immediately fall into the vacuous trap of “Tesla envy” or Tesla emulation” for their design decisions.
I think it must come down to a price point decision. It’s all electronic so why spend the extra everything to knob it up? To knob things up incurs tooling costs on dashboards, switches, and wiring harness and the labor to install everything.
They are trying to bring something to market on schedule and on budget.
And yes, I think the knob is a good thing to fondle while driving.
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I would prefer knobs for functions such as drive, reverse, neutral, park & wipers, window operation, & door operation.
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Unfortunately knobs and buttons increase the price and weight of the vehicle. You may not think it could be much weight until you have a vehicle dash out and see the yards of wiring to connect to them.
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Having to reach out to use a computer touch screen is a distraction from my driving. I find that it is much easier to use a switch or button for most of those functions.
There are things that I prefer not to use a computer screen for automotive functions.
Unlocking/Opening doors from the inside
Power windows
Wiper Function
Starting APTERA / gear selection
Cruise control
Internal hatch release
Lighting…inside and outside
I am hoping that this is something that we can let APTERA know what people on this forum are wanting….PLEASE I am sure there are other ideas or wants you may have to add or can live without.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
Norman Roberts.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
Gabriel Kemeny.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
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I agree with most of the suggested buttons. I don’t feel gear selection or lights is really needed since you don’t use them while moving.
To add to your list. I’d love it if the ends of the yoke were triggers for adjusting the regen up and down.
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They’ve said it’s the wave of the future and if you look at concept cars, they’re correct. For safety sake, here’s my, at whatever costs, must haves…
Horn
Lights (high / low)
Signals
Wipers
Cruise
Make that entire yoke face a horn button (the current + – buttons remain).
Three stalks…
A left stalk with a rotational switch at the end for lights, pull the stalk toward you to momentarily activate high beams and push away to switch on, and push the stalk up or down for turn signals.
A right stalk for wipers.
And another right stalk for cruise.
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There is, apart from the horn, only one must have physical button/lever that must be present in my opinion: a means to manually open the doors from the inside in an emergency. If the electric system fails, crashes or the touch screen is damaged (e.g. in an accident) you still want to be able to leave the vehicle.
The other physical controls are in my opinion in the category ought to have or nice to have.
Everything you use regularly from the steering column should either be automated in such a way that you need it no longer or still be available. In my situation I would only need cruise control and wind screen wiper to be present on the steering wheel (on a stalk maybe) but that may vary from person to person, so maybe make it programmable with a few sane defaults.
Of course turn signal indicators also need to be available, but the already are in the gamma version, so I forgot to mention them.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Ab Reitsma. Reason: Added turn signal indicators
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Ab Reitsma.
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There currently is a physical means of opening the door from inside but it’s designed only for emergencies and not everyday use.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
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There are people on the Aptera Owners Club Discord that are planning on creating programmable physical buttons. I will be participating. We will see how things unfold when cars are in peoples hands.
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At my age (87) I find it difficult to hit a spot on a touch screen without changing my focus. Attempting this in a moving vehicle is a safety issue.
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Now that the Launch Model is announced. Does anyone have information on the console interface? What features will it include?
Will it have Airplay and Android Auto, wireless?
Is anyone participating in interface customer focus groups?
What information and functions will the driver facing screens have?
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NO ANDROID AUTO OR APPLE INTERFACE.
No public announcement from Aptera about the UI/UX so far
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I know it took some time to adjust to my 2012 Prius C from a 1995 Saturn TDI (it started out as a parts car my son dragged home, then we got the bright idea of swapping in a 1997 Jetta TDI drivetrain, so we had a lot of toggle switches – was also very convenient to stick a screwdriver in the ignition to start it!) as I have long been accustomed to analog gauges, but I eventually adapted. I expect to experience the same learning curve when I get my Aptera. Wondering if there will be something in the software to change the font size of the touchscreen functions?
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Hi all,
has anyone seen a video of the display interface operations?
+ does it connect to android auto
+ heating and cooling
+ vehicle data displayed
Kind regards
Excited Aussie – Steve
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CEO Chris Anthony stated recently in a video that the software will be the last thing to be finalized. They are actively developing, testing and refining those flexiible human interface elements now. I wouldn’t expect to see a close to final version of them until the day they start deliveries. And even then, like in Teslas, the interface will change and improve as time goes by.
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Seems like an ok place to plug in this question. Does anyone know how the front parking sensors might work? I have zero experience with EVs and just wonder how this data might be displayed. I know we are pretty much guessing here but I am clueless as to how others display the info from this type of sensor. I see them on many vehicles, but only from the bumper and not the screens.
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@glenn-zajic They appear to be standard ultrasonic emitters, just like the proximity sensors on any other vehicle. They work like bat-radar – so the “display interface” will most likely be a beeping sound if you get too close to something.
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@steven-ball As others have stated, the UI will be the last part of Aptera to be finished so, no, no one has seen the actual UI in action.
Chris A has stated – repeatedly – that Aptera will have neither Android Auto nor Apple CarPlay.
Yes, heating and cooling will be controlled from the center screen.
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May we please have an HDMI port?
For game consoles or laptop screen extention. Only in park, understandably, making camp mode akin to a den mode for office work, gaming, or casual entertainment.
Thank You.
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Oh my god that would be SO AWESOME if they added that. Aptera is aready my favorite vehicle, but if it wasn’t, it would be after that.
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I am pretty sure an HDMI port is not in the cards for the first production LEs. The only thing we know for sure is that there will be Bluetooth connectivity with possibly Apple Car Play and Android Auto later on but not at first.
The LE spec is complete and hopefully, sourced in the supply chain. What is spec’td and source is what we willl get.
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I was reviewing my PV power generation today on the Outback controller, and got to wondering if Aptera will have a similar feature to monitor daily PV/solar miles generated? With the Outback I can view several days of generation, real time consumption, and performance graph. This may have been brought up before, so I probably missed it.
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What kind of info Aptera will display about the solar or other systems has yet to be determined but it makes sense for them to do so. We’ll probably have to wait till production to see the info display options as software development will come much later.
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If the display is open sourced, then you might have as many dash configurations as you want. I use a few companies that offer custom or customizable dash set ups to view what you want to see. I usually have about 10 saved and use them on any android compatible display.
Note: mostly I use them for ICE vehicles because the electric vehicles have so little I need to keep my eyes on.
I use only high quality OBD2 adaptors for BT, wifi or direct connection. Cheap connectors can damage the computers.
My most used- OBDlinkMX+
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The possibility of Apple Car Play and Android Auto being made available mentioned during the webinar this week should please some who were clamoring for it in this and other threads.
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Interesting that Steve from AOC basically concluded the same thing from the filings and research but the video was obviously recorded without having seen the webinar. Either (potentially both long term) would be great. The open source of android auto would seem more in line with the Aptera ethos but options to limit or replace google services / data collection would be more important to some Aptera buyers than others. Personally I really don’t care about the data google knows about me but that is a conscious choice – most are ignorant about it.
PS: Tailosive did a livestream after the webinar and it was originally titled “Aptera is getting Apple CarPlay”… Clearly nothing is certain yet.
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I really hope that Steve is right and they are going to Android Automotive, it’s the right decision. I also hope they are going to use the full stack. Navigation is critical and Google Maps and Waze are the best. Android Automotive will also give you access to a large suite of streaming apps, all while being integrated with the car which is superior to just doing mirroring from a phone. BTW it supports CarPlay for those of you who want to stay in Apple’s ecosystem.
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To reduce development costs I wonder if it would be best for Aptera to use two separate displays between the center vent at least for now. Aptera would need two touchscreen devices of the required width but would only need to develop custom software for the lower screen. This would potentially cut software R&D substantially because the custom vehicle control and information software would not need to exist in the same system providing infotainment (music, navigation, calling etc). The top infotainment display could run a fairly commodity android auto/carplay screen (similar or identical to those which can be purchased to provide smart dashcams/rearviews for existing cars for $80-200). The generic infotainment screens piggyback on the cellular of the connected phone.
The bottom screen would be the only custom screen/software for the purpose of controlling the vehicle hardware (hvac, windows, wipers, battery info, solar info, pin to drive, etc) and would not need cellular (it could be updated by plugging in a preloaded usb key).
When Aptera has the budget (ie after IPO) for more software development they could potentially switch to a single screen but in the short term this seems a good option to provide maximum functionality at the lowest cost. Would something like this impact your choice of Aptera as a vehicle; Apparently this is similar to what was done with the now defunct solo?
Note: Sorry my photo mockup is quite crude – Did it quickly just to show the general idea.
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Yes. The idea sounds great to me for all the same reasons you mentioned. It certainly wouldn’t serve to change my reservation. If it would help get the car (I’m tired of referring to it as a vehicle because of a 3-wheel technicality) out the door sooner without software trade offs, I would say do it. If that’s what we have 5 or 10 years down the road – fine with me.
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I vote for Android Auto.
It would be nice to make the home screen configurable like it is on a cell phone. Being able to place icons/buttons/controls in a matrix on the screen where they would be most accessible would be helpful. Making the shape, size, color, intensity, maybe flashing, etc would be great. Voice commands would also be appreciated.