this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
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Automotive Industry
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I’ve always said, if you cannot control 90% of your car with your eyes on the road, then it’s a bad design.
I can’t wait for the knob revolution. (Pun intended)
Eh, I say it's fine just for the most commonly used stuff.
The reason why touchscreens became so popular in the beginning is because cars were getting more complex with more features, and having individual buttons to control everything was beginning to require literally hundreds of buttons.
The ideal compromise is to put commonly used things -- the sort of things you might use every day -- into physical controls, but to leave all the more obscure features and settings in the screen.
What got more complex other than audio from your phone and a gps map?
Take the seats for example.
Nothing --> heated seats (1 button) --> heated/ventilated seats (2 buttons) --> heated/ventilated/massaging seats (3 buttons) --> heated/ventilated/massaging seats with multiple different massage modes (??? buttons)
And that's just one thing, not even worrying about all the additional power adjustments seats tend to have these days.
(I'd still want physical buttons for the heated/ventilated seats ... but, yeah. The rest of that, you can put in the screen.)
None of that needs a screen.
My seats adjust all kinds of ways without a screen.
I have heated and cooled seats… with buttons.
So again I ask, what changed that can’t be buttons?
Lots of stuff is much more easily done via a screen interface, mostly configuration type things. How sensitive the auto high-beams are, whether the unlock button only unlocks the driver door VS. all doors, remote start duration, steering weight, throttle sensitivity, etc.
I hate that my HVAC controls and heated seat controls are via the touch screen but plenty of the other stuff is fine to do through a touch interface.