this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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[–] tiramichu@lemm.ee 104 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This may in part be motivated by new guidance from NCAP, which will from next year require that all new cars have physical controls to earn the highest safety ratings.

https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/207666/buttons-could-replace-touch-controls-in-cars-thanks-to-new-euro-ncap-tests

Whatever the motivation though, I'm glad for it. Getting rid of buttons was always a dumb idea and I'm happy to see pushback.

[–] RejZoR@lemmy.ml 35 points 1 day ago (7 children)

It wasn't dumb from corporate perspective, which is why they all gobbled it up like junky hoovering on piles of white dust.

You know how expensive it is to mold unique dedicated physical buttons for every function and then wire them all over the place? Or just slap single touch display and cram all the shit into that single display. You code it once and use it on all models. Corporates were already counting the money saved there. Until it backfired because everyone hated it, reviewers criticized it and now it's finally also criticized by safety agencies.

[–] shaggyb@lemmy.world 12 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Cars cost way too much for me to care about this excuse.

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[–] tiramichu@lemm.ee 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

As well as the pure cost saving there was also the notion that it was a futuristic look that would sell, and so boost profits that way, too.

And probably it did sell and market well - for a while.

I feel that consumers had become too trusting of carmakers - after all, cars have been getting better and better in terms of their usability for decades, so when carmakers went touchscreen everything, the first instinct of the average consumer would be to trust it and assume it represented an improvement."They wouldn't do it if it was worse, right?"

And so people buy the fancy futuristic car with no buttons, and only after driving it for a month does it sink in how much they truly hate it, and that they got sold a lie.

So there was always going to be that one generation of touchscreen-everything, before the people who got burnt by it are now the ones thinking "I won't buy anything again that doesn't have some buttons!"

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 8 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

You know how expensive it is to mold unique dedicated physical buttons for every function and then wire them all over the place?

Not expensive. You don't have to "wire them all over the place", you just put them on a PCB and connect them to the nearest CAN bus, or similar.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago

They'd basically already be doing that for the touch screen, and may well be using similar controls under the hood, where the physical buttons send a command to the computer to do a thing, in lieu of a mechanical connection.

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[–] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago

Without actually knowing how much constructing the physical buttons cost, I would guess that the real savings are in process optimization - if all you have for the interface is a screen, then you don't need to have the interface design done before constructing the car - you can parallelize these tasks.

Insufficient as far as justifications go, but understandably lucrative.

[–] Zirconium@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

You can even have that single display collect so much car user data and sell that too

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[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hyundai (motor group) and some time later VW group announced that they are bringing physical buttons back.

March of 2023

As it turns out though, sometimes the old ways are best. Hyundai certainly thinks so, as it has pledged to employ real physical buttons in products to come.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/hyundai-promises-to-keep-buttons-in-cars-because-touchscreen-controls-are-dangerous

December of 2023

https://insideevs.com/news/701296/vw-physical-controls-to-return/

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[–] jeena@piefed.jeena.net 33 points 1 day ago

That's very positive.

[–] FreeRangeMustard@lemm.ee 29 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

That’s why I love brands like Hyundai. Never got rid of the knobs.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Honda as well.

Subaru went all in on the touch screen and it suuuuucked.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

My uncle's outback looks like a video slot machine, and everything had to be done through the touchscreen. But to add insult to injury, the Subaru touchscreens are super slow and unresponsive, so they feel like they aren't working.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

Yup, that was my experience with the in laws Ascent.

[–] Addv4@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Yep. And mazda has physical climate button/knobs, with a physical dial to control the infotainment (it's pretty convenient, if a bit of an older design on most of their vehicles).

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I consider it space-age. I haven't driven a non-Mazda that seemed as well thought out and functional. I wish I could rip one out and put it on my non-Mazda car. I breath a sigh of relief that my partner didn't buy the Honda with a long finicky touchstrip to control the volume instead of a knob.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Which Honda had the touchstrip instead of a knob?

I don't doubt one might exist, just haven't run into one yet.

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

Its been a few years, but I think it was a Honda Fit.

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[–] DogEarBookmark@reddthat.com 4 points 1 day ago

Thats the reason they dont have me roped into payments right now

[–] garretble@lemmy.world 3 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I got in right before Subaru went that way and ended up with the best of both worlds: a touchscreen for CarPlay and knobs for...everything else. I still have knobs for the radio if need be.

Plus it's a six speed manual (Crosstrek).

I get a flyer from the dealership every other week asking if I want to "upgrade." Sorry, fellas, nothing you have is an upgrade to me. You can't get a manual gearbox here any more.

[–] oatscoop@midwest.social 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

You can’t get a manual gearbox here any more.

Huh, let's see why

Another factor contributing to the discontinuation of manual transmissions is the increasing emphasis on safety features and the integration of advanced driver-assist technologies.

Ew.

[–] garretble@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

It's frustrating because "the consumer" doesn't want manuals, yet car makers add all these things that keep people from paying attention to the road making it - in my opinion - too easy to get distracted. I like that I can't hold my phone in my hand and drive because I need to shift.

Last summer I was in Ireland, and I was peeking in a few cars on parked on the side of the road just out of curiosity. Almost every one was a manual, it seemed like. It's not that we COULDN'T have fun, manual cars here. But Americans are lazy.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have a Hyundai ioniq 5 and it definitely has touch buttons for some of the things, like climate control.

[–] FreeRangeMustard@lemm.ee 2 points 21 hours ago

We got the new Kona and besides the touchscreen we have all the buttons.

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 day ago

Now, take out the bullshit that's tracking you and sending the information back to them to sell, and we'll be doing something great

[–] Leeuk@feddit.uk 21 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Not sure how they were able to remove so many buttons in the first place and not be marked down on safety. Suddenly trying to find a demister on a touchscreen menu while in motion was never a great idea. Surprisingly, Volvo off all companies have been one of the worst for this. That's why I like Dacias, little tech = little to go wrong.

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 10 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I mean it was a great idea of you wanted to reduce costs while also increasing the price of the vehicle.

And it looks nice.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 9 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

And Volvo went from this:

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To this:

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Which is quite the change...

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 5 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

OTOH now we will get to enjoy dashcam videos of car rollovers where the driver is like, Where's that playlist... OH GOD OH SHIT !!!

[–] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I've never had this problem because I'm too poor to afford a car new enough to not have any buttons lmao

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Same, I'm hoping "ol' reliable" will last another 200k-500k miles so I won't have to decide if I want to ride around in a privacy invading, poorly designed smart automobile, or if I'd rather just ride my bike everywhere. To be fair, my car is only around a decade old, but it's old enough to be missing most of the smart tech, and none of the car's functions tie in with the stereo.

[–] ililiililiililiilili@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

Definitely set aside a repair fund and watch YouTube videos on how to do maintenance and common repairs on your vehicle. If its Japanese, the motor and transmission should hold on. But you'll need brake rotors/pads, tie rods ends, struts, stabilizer links, etc. along the way. Its way cheaper if you buy your own parts and do it yourself. Good luck keeping your ol' reliable going!

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[–] swizzlestick@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not out of the goodness of their own hearts mind. It's probably more because Euro NCAP are going to be deducting score for not having physical essentials in 2026.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nah, this „news“ is from early to mid last year. Their designers simply took notes and realized touch screens suck for a vehicle.

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[–] yarn@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

Thank you!

I don't care what the reasoning is behind the decision (customer feedback vs. changes to safety ratings), I'm just glad it's happening and I hope all manufacturers follow suit.

This has been my gripe with new cars ever since I found myself needing one in 2022. Everything I looked at had a huge infotainment system front-ending climate and cabin controls. Want to turn your steering wheel heat off mid drive? Ha! Tap this specific spot on this screen 3 times and hope the car doesn't bounce while you're doing so or you'll accidentally turn something else on. Want to use voice controls? Joke's on you, they only work 50% of the time.

God forbid something happens to the control board (which costs thousands of dollars to replace if you're outside warranty), because then you're completely hosed.

You know what always worked without fail? The buttons in my 2005 Corolla.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago

Hopefully they can hit some middleground so we don't end up back in the crazy button-hell that cars used to be. Having a billion buttons is equally as bad as having none.

[–] dditty@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Even without the new EU regulations on this, I bet VW was already planning on doing this. The widespread backlash to the non-illuminated capacitive touch controls on the newest Golf GTIs/Rs was significant. I wouldn't have bought one of those, and a Golf R is basically my dream car.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Learning from Scout, which is also under the VW umbrella:

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[–] WheelcharArtist@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

would be nice seeing them doing it instead of talking about it

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I mean, that's step 1? It's not like they can do an instantaneous cutover, they'll need to figure out what's vital enough to deserve buttons, come up with a design/layout for that, find a supplier for them, get them in, start assembling the cars with them... Honestly they've probably already done a lot of that behind the scenes already before saying anything publicly. Point is, it's not like there's a button in the factory to start making cars with buttons instead.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

I swear I‘ve read this headline like 4 times in the last month in this very community.

[–] JazzlikeDiamond558@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

I literally did not buy/straightout refused to buy new Golf because of this crap. It does not get simpler than that: other producer got my money, VW group did not. Period.

Volkswagen should be forbidden to produce anything. There were even touch-SLIDE commands on the steering wheel. God only knows how many lives were lost in accidents, because someone ''touched'' something and switched something off or on. Horrible.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago

It's been a long time since I looked but I hope most cars still have physical buttons/controls for all important functions! Besides being easier and faster to use, without them if a touchscreen malfunctions (hardware or software) everything is gone and you wouldn't be able to drive the car. Then there's the tracking and spying, and sometimes bugs and UI changes after updates--and now ads!?# Cars are becoming as enshittified like everything else now.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago

Aw, just when they were about to get rid of the steering wheel, shame.

[–] engene@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank you! Now bring back physical keys too!

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[–] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] walden@sub.wetshaving.social 2 points 1 day ago

Unbelievable levels of ingenuity.

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