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Well done, VW. 🙏 Intuitive haptics and ergonomics to replace confusing display menus. Yes, digital aesthetics may look nice passively, but not when seeking critical functional controls, distracting attention whilst driving. Although Toyota is conservative, most controls are intuitive & reliable 😉

I drive a VW Tiguan 3 and desperately miss some of the logical layout of Tiguan 2 controls. The trade-off between marketable digital aesthetics and intuitive ergonomics and haptics should never distract drivers from driving safely, putting car occupants and pedestrians at risk!

It's illegal here in the UK to use your phone for calls/messages etc except for hands free via Bluetooth etc. Meanwhile, the OEMs are turning the car itself into...a phone

Can anyone explain why their "entry-level EV" has a massive panoramic sun roof? I want EVs to be more affordable and manufacturers keep pumping them with expensive and heavy luxury features that just drive up the initial cost and the cost of repairs. Please just jam a battery in a Jetta

Flatscreens suck because they aren't tactile in the least - require you to take your eyes off the road for any function. I can find a knob or a button without looking - much safer.

Actual drivers have been suggesting this ever since the buttons disappeared. Nice to see another car manufacturer use their own cars.

I’m no expert, but it always looked bleedin obvious that moving everything to an iPad glued to the dashboard was a really stupid idea. Whoever thought it was a good idea needs to be fired.

One of the best things about my almost 4 year old Ioniq 5 is it has LOTS OF BUTTONS because it was made by an actual car company and not some fascist fuckwit.

To be honest, the sheer number of buttons and the choppy '90s-style screen in the Ioniq 5 were what put me off (and because the salesperson told me delivery would take at least 12 months). When I test-drove the Tesla, I felt like I was in the future - with buttons only for the essential functions.

I can totally understand that impression, certainly, I felt that way in the early days of Tesla. But when you are daily driving, you start to become really annoyed at not being able to just reach out and do a thing without fucking with the screen. 

I’ve had my Model Y for three years now and I still enjoy driving it just as much as I did on the first day. In everyday life, I don’t need the settings on the screen at all. And yes, I wish someone else were the CEO.

Came here to say this! My Kia EV has buttons and it’s actually nice to drive, not waiting for me to never need to drive it in 15 years when the AV feature actually ships

Clicked to see if somebody had already mentioned hundai /kia. We bought a new car in June and on top of our list of must haves were physical buttons. Tried several car brands, but none could compete with the ioniq 5.

Yes, although there is still room for improvement (i.e. focus on often used functions, separate/organize them so you can find them with your fingers without having to look at them). But since I know how far worse it could be, I'll keep my voice down and be humble.

One thing I do with is that they'd add more things as available for the two programmable buttons.

The first time I gave a friend a ride in my Ioniq 5, I pointed at the center console and said "it has actual, physical buttons! I don't have to mess with the touchscreen to turn on the front defroster! This what happens when a car company makes an EV!

He opened up the glove compartment, went "hey, I can open the glove compartment!" This is when I found out a certain tech company that makes EV's decided to put the latch to the glove compartment in the infotainment touchscreen.

It's a perfect balance also on the 2025 Kia EV6. Buttons (most on the steering wheel) and handles Also get up on the centre screen which position lights and vipers are when using the handles. No need to use the screen when driving.

Thank the Prophets! Cars are not Starfleet ships. People need tactile, easily-discernable-while-not-looking controls to use while driving. I have zero interest in a car where the effing radio/climate control/defrost/seat controls are all in a menu on a screen! Hope other automakers follow suit!

I'm interested in Mazda's media system, with a small-ish wide screen that has touch but is entirely navigable with a knob down by the driver's center console. Im also interested in the Slate. Cut it all out to reduce the cost entirely.

No reason to throw out the baby with the bath water. If there is a button on screen, touch is faster than fiddling around with some control button. That said, any core function for driving and climate must have dedicated buttons.

The difference is that I can feel around and press a button without looking. That tactility doesn’t exist with touch screens. I think the only way to do it would be with its UI on a fixed grid under a raised, clear silicone button overlay 🤔

I prefer tactile buttons every day of the week and twice on Sundays, but buttons under a silicone know share the „blind use“ issue with touch screens, so I‘m not sure if it‘s a progress over touch.

Touch screens can stay, BUT anything you touch while driving should be a physical button. Stuff like entering an address was fucking awful before touchscreens. I'm glad new cars just have an on screen keyboard instead of making you use what's essentially a D-Pad to type.

Way to many buttons, especially on the steering wheel. A few buttons for important functions needed while driving is OK. But buttons for features that are rarely used are just confusing.

If only BMW would do the same! Honestly, having to search on a digital display/ screen for climate system, audio, communications, and other controls—with no tactile feedback, mind you—while driving, is not only infuriating, but downright dangerous.

I'd have thought the preference for buttons (and knobs) would be so you don't have to take your eyes off the road. Dozens of buttons in a panel doesn't achieve that.

Common sense wins, yay. Now we need to tackle "driver safety" features. My modern work car braked automatically twice on my commute today. It hallucinated and used flashing red lights to take my eyes off the road! It thinks time since ignition > road. It also has dangerous LED headlights. FFS.

And for a particular one: more screen behind steering wheel, and less glass roof, and more latch on glove box, and more manual air vents, and less hot air pumped to the back seat unless AC is set <10F of ambient, and more steering wheel stalks for common controls, and much less Elmo as CEO.

Good choice, this will make driving safer. No buttons was a big turn-off for me, when considering a VW. I love all the buttons on my 2023 Honda Civic.

My BMW i3s from 2021 calls this good news, it also has buttons for most things and lacks a touchscreen.

All for buttons and knobs that make sense and placed appropriately. We have a 2018 Lexus with a bunch of buttons tucked away on the door side of the wheel and I can never tell which one to press because I can’t see them.

It feels a little like malicious compliance - "they said they wanted buttons? Ok, here are some buttons." TBQH I am disappointed that this design is the go-forward design. The glued-on tablet designs feel so lazy and cheap. Per-car, it would be ok. As a design standard, it's terrible.

Car companies need to realize the balance between buttons and touch screen controls. It’s something Hyundai does extremely well. Climate and radio/media controls need to be separate. Also don’t put the glove box button in the touchscreen. That’s the most idiotic thing that could be done control wise

I’ll add my pet peeve for my 2025 Ram pickup. Overall, they did a decent job of balancing use of buttons with touchscreen controls, but one REALLY annoying thing is that the large console display has popup alerts like “lane closure ahead” that cover nearly the entire screen, …

… making the nav screen useless until you clear it. To do so, you have to hit a little “ok” button in the middle of it, which is tough to do while driving, often taking 3 or more attempts to hit it correctly. They also have an easily accessible, physical “OK” button on the steering wheel. …

… But of course you can’t use that to clear the popups. Because unless you’re going through the dashboard menus, and need to OK a selection on them, the OK button has the sole function of toggling the speedometer between mph and kmph. …

Theres barely a scenerio i can think of where id rather take my eyes off the road to look at a touch screen so i touch it the right way over simply feeling a button. Its safer and easier and tbh its insane ppl even accepted the former

The new polo looks like a return to form for VW. The ID series were flawed at birth. They drove well but were overly heavy and chunky and the inside design, both industrial and UX design, were bad.

I do support this idea. Fumbling through touchscreen menus when trying to find the window demist option whilst on the move is much less good than "press the tactile button".