We had physical buttons for decades. That required a certain amount of deliberate physical action and force by a person to press the doorbell.

Now designers and manufacturers have decided that everyone wants and needs touch sensors.

Sacrifice in the process -

Inadvertent triggers and lack of tactile feedback.

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franga2000 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

They didn't even decide that we want them, from what I've heard, capacitive "buttons" are simply cheaper as they require not additional parts.

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tirant 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

They are cheaper and they pass IPXX requirements on dust/water protection easily. But they seem to be good enough because customers, despite some complaints, keep buying devices with capacitive buttons.

	▲	astrobe_ 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Also, mechanical stuff eventually wears out - at best with good quality ones, the product becomes obsolete before they do. For instance potentiometers [1] used for volume control on stereos rust over time and eventually become unusable. So there's a durability argument too. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentiometer
	▲	jimnotgym 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		In the case of cars, isn't it simply that there is no other option on the market?

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neuronic 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, now the cheap cooking stoves have touch interfaces which is an OBVIOUSLY bad idea, much worse even than touch buttons in cars. The expensive professional stoves however...

	▲	ahoka 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Expensive stoves also have touch screen, just with much better UX.
	▲	rlpb 3 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		> The expensive professional stoves however... …have people whose job it is to clean everything every day anyway.
	▲	Symbiote 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The touch buttons on my stove are easy to clean, but I think that's the only advantage.

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voidUpdate 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I didn't realise that it was a touch sensors, and was wondering through the article how on earth a slug was pushing the buttons to bell people, and maybe somehow its slime was conductive enough to get inside and short things?

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skeezyboy 3 days ago | parent [-]

if you look on the top of its head its got two arm like appendages that it can touch things with, probably did it with those

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inkcapmushroom 3 days ago | parent [-]

Those are its eye stalks. I don't imagine pressing with a lot of force on its eyestalks is something a slug likes to do, but then again I haven't asked any yet.

	▲	skeezyboy 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		it was ringing the bell somehow, what else could it have been? even a particularly fat slug would have trouble pressing the bell as its vertically aligned.

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beerandt 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Still miss the keyboard on my HTC Tilt2

	▲	thayne 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Indeed. Especially as I get older and my accuracy on a virtual touchscreen keyboard gets worse.