When yesterday's newspaper reported on the Golf VIII recall due to touch screen failure, a German court ruling from mid-2019 was mentioned.
A Tesla driver wanted to increase the interval frequency of the windshield wiper in heavy rain. To do so, he had to go into a submenu of the touch screen. He was distracted for so long that he left the roadway and hit several trees and ended up crashing in front of another tree.
The court ruled: The touch screen is considered an electronic device just like a cell phone if you have to go to a submenu of the touch screen. Even if the TS is permanently installed in the car, it is therefore forbidden to operate it while driving. Only if you can quickly change a control function by briefly tapping the TS, this action is allowed.
For me, this ruling has two consequences.
First, no matter what you do as a driver on the TS, you may be entering a legal gray area, because in my view it is a distraction from driving in any case. Take alone the changeover time of the accommodation from far to near vision...and back again. I think any operation while driving, where I have to see what I'm doing, is very bad.
And secondly...in this case the driver was convicted and since the confirmation of this verdict by the Higher Regional Court in late 2020 no one is allowed to operate the TS for a longer period of time while driving.
And my guess, it could well be the case from now on, that car makers will no longer get approval for the TS with all functions when driving. The cheapest solution may be that you can no longer access submenus while driving. Basically similar to many cab drivers who used to have a small TV in earlier times but it had to go off when the cab started.
Please dear car makers, leave the immediate basic functions on the levers, buttons and on the small knobs. For private purposes we still drive our 10 year old E class station wagon W212 to our satisfaction. All the buttons and knobs are still there, but no longer in the successor.
