You don’t see a lot of good news about road safety in the United States. Unlike in most peer countries, American roadway deaths surged during the pandemic and have barely receded since. Pedestrian and cyclist fatalities recently hit their highest levels in 40 years, but U.S. transportation officials continue to ignore key contributing factors. In a February interview with Fast Company, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that “further research” is needed before addressing the obvious risks that oversized SUVs and trucks pose to those not inside of them.
Happily, there is one area where we are making at least marginal progress: A growing number of automakers are backpedaling away from the huge, complex touchscreens that have infested dashboard design over the past 15 years. Buttons and knobs are coming back.
Good. Now all we need is for all these popular YouTube car reviewers to stop drooling over these dangerous touch screens and we can get back a sense of normalcy in our cars.
Why was my post censored? It was a mild good-natured joke followed by serious commentary.
Bah, maybe it failed to submit… The short version is: I hope these buttons don’t end up being just a luxury thing in the future.
In future, buttons will probably be an extra cost feature with a monthly fee for support.
ponk,
Oh man, I didn’t even think of that. All of the service fees so far have been in cars with modern infotainment touchscreens. But you’re right that’s a possibility, the future could introduce charges for traditional buttons AND new service fees for remote activation.
I don’t know if it makes any sense to put faith in elected representatives, but…
https://www.businessinsider.com/car-feature-subscriptions-add-ons-bmw-ford-toyota-gm-2022-2
Geature? Is this a portmanteau of geek and feature?
I’ve been harping on this for years. Glad to see it get traction from people in charge of things. Maybe one day we’ll actually get radio buttons back on the radios. I mean, maybe you let the button functionality change based on user preference, but for heavens sake keep it a button I can feel.
I just got a 2023 Chevy Bolt EUV, coming from a 2011 Subaru Forester and a string of ancient Volvos before that. (Never thought I’d own a new car.)
One of the many features that tipped the Bolt in our favour was that everything beyond controlling the music has a button or a knob.
This shift to all touch screens struck me as madness. I live in Ontario, Canada. It gets cold here in the winter. Touchscreens do not work well at -30C, and I want to be able to drive wearing gloves.
As far as I am concerned, manual controls for core functionality are non-negotiable.
I am glad that we were able to wait things out with our awesome Subaru until there was a viable alternative in the market for us.
I have been driving my Tesla Model Y for a little over a year now…and I can’t imagine driving anything else! The UI is absolutely fantastic. The touchscreen is responsive (and capacitive!) and it’s well laid out with common features easily accessible. I can see why others “gave up” on touchscreens, though. EVERY other car I have driven with one has been absolute trash…with some using resistive touchscreens that only occasionally will register a press! The UIs on these cars is hideous as well.
I far prefer using a GOOD touchscreen UI to having buttons festoon every inch of my dash! It looks horrid, and I absolutely LOATHE having everything glow at night!