Although it looks nice, it would be pretty dangerous to actually use this while driving. I've been researching peripheral touch screens for the past year and making them easy to use without looking is really hard.
The effects of looking away from the road are pretty well known and they are bad. In this study [1] for example, noticeable differences in concentration and lane position/drift were seen when participants were just quickly glancing at the screen of a GPS. Now imagine you are not just looking at that screen, but trying to touch it in the right place (accidentally hitting the wrong button, getting frustrated etc.). These problems really have to be solved before replacing commonly used functions in cars with touch screens and this design does not adequately address them.
Touch screens are about the worst imaginable driver interface systems. I'm astounded that they're as popular as they are, but I guess cargo-culting of successful interface metaphors is nothing new.
First, the parts of a car that the driver should be looking at with their central vision are relatively far from where their hands should be. Because touch screens are nearly impossible to use without looking at them, they positively require the driver to be staring at something other than the road.
Finally, unless you've got glass-smooth pavement or exceptionally compliant suspension, steadying your hand in front of the display in a moving vehicle is nearly impossible.
That's why for years (well-designed) cars have had a combination of knobs and relatively stiff switches rather than myriad little indistinguishable buttons.
Especially considering how trivial it is to implement force feedback on a knob, I'm surprised that no car maker or aftermarket vendor is making use of it.
Additionally, I think it is incredibly telling that we've been banning texting-while-driving and yet expect stationery, ~1ft away UI to be the solution. With texting, you still don't have the benefit of tactile feedback but you at least have the ability to try to steady the phone on your steering wheel to give you the best road:phone visual you could possibly get, it's closer to your face and you probably understand the UI better. All the same, it's been the cause of innumerable accidents. Given that you're likely using a GPS unit because you don't understand the area as is, these controls need to be on the steering wheel or accessed through voice controls. Even someone who understands their GPS still has to deal with the bumps and swerves of the road.
Absolutely. I wouldn't call texting on a phone (even an old-fashioned one with physical buttons) safer than operating a GPS though. The same bumps and swerves of the road you point out can cause the phone to slip from your hands, fall on the floor and cause an accident, to just name an example.
The effects of looking away from the road are pretty well known and they are bad. In this study [1] for example, noticeable differences in concentration and lane position/drift were seen when participants were just quickly glancing at the screen of a GPS. Now imagine you are not just looking at that screen, but trying to touch it in the right place (accidentally hitting the wrong button, getting frustrated etc.). These problems really have to be solved before replacing commonly used functions in cars with touch screens and this design does not adequately address them.
[1] http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1620534