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Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again (Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/why-car-brands-are-finally-switching-back-to-buttons/Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its senses.
Carlton Reid
May 5, 2025
-snip-
Still, “the lack of physical switchgear is a shame” is now a common refrain in automotive reviews, including on WIRED. However, a limited but growing number of other automakers are dialing back the digital to greater or lesser degrees. The latest version of Mazda’s CX-60 crossover SUV features a 12.3-inch infotainment screen, but there’s still physical switchgear for operating the heater, air-con, and heated/cooled seats. While it’s still touch-sensitive, Mazda’s screen limits what you can prod depending on the app you’re using and whether you’re in motion. There’s also a real click wheel.
But many other automakers keep their touchscreen/slider/haptic/LLM doohickeys. Ninety-seven percent of new cars released after 2023 contain at least one screen, reckons S&P Global Mobility. Yet research last year by Britain’s What Car? magazine found that the vast majority of motorists prefer dials and switches to touchscreens. A survey of 1,428 drivers found that 89 percent preferred physical buttons.
-snip-
In-vehicle infotainment systems impair reaction times behind the wheel more than alcohol and narcotics use, according to researchers at independent British consultancy TRL. The five-year-old study, commissioned by road-safety charity IAM RoadSmart, discovered that the biggest negative impact on drivers’ reactions to hazards came when using Apple CarPlay by touch. Reaction times were nearly five times worse than when a driver was at the drink-drive limit, and nearly three times worse than when high on cannabis.
A study carried out by Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare in 2022 showed that physical buttons are much less time-consuming to use than touchscreens. Using a mix of old and new cars, the magazine found that the most straightforward vehicle to change controls on was the 2005 Volvo V70 festooned with buttons and no screens. A range of activities such as increasing cabin temperature, tuning the radio, and turning down instrument lighting could be handled within 10 seconds in the old Volvo, and with only a minimum of eyes-down. However, the same tasks on an electric MG Marvel R compact SUV took 45 seconds, requiring precious travel time to look through the nested menus. (The tests were done on an abandoned airfield.)
-snip-
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its senses.
Carlton Reid
May 5, 2025
-snip-
Still, “the lack of physical switchgear is a shame” is now a common refrain in automotive reviews, including on WIRED. However, a limited but growing number of other automakers are dialing back the digital to greater or lesser degrees. The latest version of Mazda’s CX-60 crossover SUV features a 12.3-inch infotainment screen, but there’s still physical switchgear for operating the heater, air-con, and heated/cooled seats. While it’s still touch-sensitive, Mazda’s screen limits what you can prod depending on the app you’re using and whether you’re in motion. There’s also a real click wheel.
But many other automakers keep their touchscreen/slider/haptic/LLM doohickeys. Ninety-seven percent of new cars released after 2023 contain at least one screen, reckons S&P Global Mobility. Yet research last year by Britain’s What Car? magazine found that the vast majority of motorists prefer dials and switches to touchscreens. A survey of 1,428 drivers found that 89 percent preferred physical buttons.
-snip-
In-vehicle infotainment systems impair reaction times behind the wheel more than alcohol and narcotics use, according to researchers at independent British consultancy TRL. The five-year-old study, commissioned by road-safety charity IAM RoadSmart, discovered that the biggest negative impact on drivers’ reactions to hazards came when using Apple CarPlay by touch. Reaction times were nearly five times worse than when a driver was at the drink-drive limit, and nearly three times worse than when high on cannabis.
A study carried out by Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare in 2022 showed that physical buttons are much less time-consuming to use than touchscreens. Using a mix of old and new cars, the magazine found that the most straightforward vehicle to change controls on was the 2005 Volvo V70 festooned with buttons and no screens. A range of activities such as increasing cabin temperature, tuning the radio, and turning down instrument lighting could be handled within 10 seconds in the old Volvo, and with only a minimum of eyes-down. However, the same tasks on an electric MG Marvel R compact SUV took 45 seconds, requiring precious travel time to look through the nested menus. (The tests were done on an abandoned airfield.)
-snip-
This article focuses on Europe, where there's enough concern about this that, starting next year, EuroNCAP (New Car Assessment Program) will lower safety ratings on cars too dependent on touchscreens to "incentivize automakers to fit physical, easy-to-use, and tactile controls."
It IS possible for people to recognize when tech has gone too far and is creating problems, and for manufacturers to respond to that concern and decide the shiny new tech toy isn't so helpful.
And btw, this does give me some hope the same thing might happen with the current genAI hype and stampede to add it everything. Though chatbots are temptingly useful for data gathering, and that data can be used or sold, which provides a nasty incentive for companies to keep pushing it.
And some car manufacturers are being idiotic. Mercedes has not only integrated ChatGPT - a hallucinating chatbot - into its voice controls, but is offering an S-Class with a 56-inch, door-to-door Hyperscreen: "a 12.3-inch driver’s display, a 12.3-inch passenger touchscreen, and a 17.7-inch central touchscreen that, within submenus, houses climate control and other key functions." Because that and a hallucinating chatbot at the controls won't be distracting at all...
11 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
The electronic junk all mfrs have been pushing are just that: junk.
