With physical buttons we can keep eyes on the road, one hand on the wheel and the other one looks for the right button. With a touch screen we have to look at the screen, hoping we made the right decision about what's going to happen on the road. If there are laws against texting there should be laws against using touchscreens when the car is moving.
Just how many controls are you manipulating that are not duplicated to your steering wheel on your drive? Modern cars feature nearly automatic everything, set and forget.
Just a note about laws against texting. So my state recently, finally last year, put in place a law which said you must use hands free.
Guess what happened, now half the dolts have their phone mounted to their windshield in their field of view or on their dash. So yeah, its hands free but even more distracting. Apparently this loop hole exists in many states!
Fitts’s Law is really relevant here, even if the buttons were physical, but especially if they are touch based. Not all hit targets are the same in terms of safety.
