European regulations are banning essential functions on touch screens. They are bringing in a requirement for physical buttons, knobs and switches, as screen cause drivers to take their eyes off the road for too long.
Imagine how enshitified everything would be if the EU wasn’t there as a consumer protection buffer. The US would be fucked especially under our current admin who couldn’t give two shits about consumers.
It's so silly because a lot of these changes just feel like out of touch executives going "we gotta put touch screens in there! That's how you know it's a new expensive car!" And not caring about the application at all. Just put the technology in it, figure out why later.
Touch screens are frequently confused as a luxury item by consumers, and double as a cheapout for manufacturers since real quality gauges and switchgear are more expensive.
Any time you see a car full of screens, it's because the manufacturer was trying to cut costs.
Similar story for me. A buddy of mine got a Tesla model Y and I drove him to the airport in it a couple times. Hated the thing and was very reminded of apple's captive design, basically where they design things intentionally different for the sake of being different so people get use to their way, making other things feel off as a result. Everything on the center screen and having to go through a touch screen menu for windshield wipers was an absolute deal breaker. Got a Kona EV and love it, meanwhile my buddy has trouble driving his wifes car now and she hates all the blindspots in the Tesla and refuses to drive it.
My car has a small touchscreen just for audio and navigation, and it's actually great. Built-in touchscreen displays are a great addition to cars, it's just corporate greed took things too far (shocker).
Yep, my 2017 has a large enough touchscreen to serve audio and run Android Auto. Having to use the touchscreen for Android Auto is bad enough.
I also have a PRNDL (didn't know it was called that but it is now). Later years on my model switched to the push-button transmission which is positively the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Even the junky Ford / Chrysler washing-machine paddle style shifter knobs are more intuitive than that.
I take care of it and hopefully I'll keep my current ride functional for a long time because everything less than about five years old is going to this ridiculous touchscreen control scheme and I won't buy a car that relies on that. OEMs need to do something useful and bring back the manuals.
We struggled when trying to buy a car last year. We wanted a fully-electric second car, since it's our second, mainly used for a short commute or around town. Our kid was going to learn to drive, and we really wanted a "real" car with minimal screens. Boy, that was hard. We test drove at least 12 different models, and did a lot of homework.
Settled on a Volvo XC40 Recharge. Great car! Ironically, it has two screens. It has a big screen, but is not needed at all while driving. And it puts a map in front of you, where your speedometer etc is, so you don't have to look to the side while driving. But all the actual controls you'd use while driving are physical buttons, etc, and no need to look at the big screen at all, and can be set to not be interacted with while moving. Close enough.
Interesting. I'm definitely open to EVs though I can't tolerate the apparent reflexive shift away from analog controls that goes along with it. XC40 is a nice car, enjoy that.
Leave it to Volvo to integrate screens in a manner that is consistent with the operation of a vehicle at speed, rather than just cheaping out by slapping some dorky glowing frisbee on the dash running a glorified phone app.
Yep. You don't need to know what features will exist in the car, you don't need to know what the buttons do. You just put in the touch screen and then to the software later.
Lol the circuitry and parts seem cheap but with labor and parts it will cost you way more as a consumer. It eliminates 3rd party options behind software locks.
The thought process is that and that it's safer to use hands fee voice controls (despite the shit system cannot recognize any accent beyond monotone English).
Touch screens are frequently confused as a luxury item by consumers,
It's because of who the consumer is. The average new car buyer is in their 50s, with an average price above $50k. They barely understand how their smartphone works, so they think anything with a screen stuck to it is fancy and advanced.
and double as a cheapout for manufacturers since real quality gauges and switchgear are more expensive.
This is actually a LIE. Source: I used to work in auto manufacturing, but also just take 5 mins to look at the cheapest new cars on sale. All of them have buttons and manual controls. The truth is it's cheaper to have just a big screen then a big screen AND manual controls, but a small screen and manual controls will always be cheaper.
The reality is industrial designers are ruining their products on purpose to appeal to boomers more, not to save money because it doesn't.
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u/mr_cf 7h ago
European regulations are banning essential functions on touch screens. They are bringing in a requirement for physical buttons, knobs and switches, as screen cause drivers to take their eyes off the road for too long.