I was an instructional designer and manager of dealer technical training at Kawasaki corporate from 2006 to 2016. With that responsibility I regularly had opportunity to network with those in similar roles at other manufacturers' offices. Roundtables, seminars, and training sessions offered insight and collaboration that was really valuable. Sometimes the meetings included car manufacturers, and these were especially enlightening as although the powersports and auto worlds have traditionally been very distinct technically, the gap has been narrowing in recent years. Sharing of repair techniques has thus been a good thing.

One time the meeting was held at Hyundai's US headquarters in Orange County, California. Several car companies were in attendance including Mazda, Mercedes Benz, BMW, and others. While trading methods, ideas and studies in dealer mechanic training, the subject of computer controls came up and I was astonished to learn that Mercedes had back then recently introduced a touch screen in their cars. I could not believe it was a real thing. Can people really be so stupid as to accept this, I wondered. More than fifteen years later touch screens are of course ubiquitous. They're in all cars and some cars can't even be effectively operated without them. It's madness.

Texting while driving is hurting and killing people. Touch screens simply ramp this problem up many times to take drivers' focus off the road. How can anyone think touch screens for the driver are a good thing? Many states now have laws against touching your cell phone while driving, and for decades manufacturers have been prohibited from installing TVs in the front of the car. How is it that we are now ignoring these dangers?