Where is his button: motorists are annoyed by new technologies
Starting in January 2026, cars without physical buttons will not be able to receive five stars in the Euro NCAP safety rating. Various studies show that due to the craze for touch panels, the safety and reliability of modern machines are suffering. Automakers themselves admit that the abandonment of physical buttons was a mistake. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Physics of clicks
According to the new Euro NCAP new car assessment program, the horn, wipers, turn signals, emergency light and emergency call function must be made in the form of physical buttons or switches. Otherwise, the car will not receive a five-star rating, even if it deserves it by other indicators.
"There are more and more accidents due to distractions," said Matthew Avery, NCAP's director of Strategic Development. According to him, touchscreens, displays and various driver assistance functions can distract a driver's attention from the road for 5-40 seconds, which can lead to fatal consequences. In addition, the displays do not have tactile feedback and it is not always clear whether they respond to touch or not.
Besides, gone are the days when you could get in a car and immediately understand the layout of the controls.
Swedish company Vi Bilägare tested 11 modern cars with touchscreen infotainment screens and a 2005 Volvo V70 to determine which one is easier to drive.
The participants in the experiment were asked to activate the heated seats, raise the temperature in the cabin, turn on the radio and adjust it to certain stations, reset the route computer readings and dim the instrument panel backlight to the lowest level.
In the old Volvo, drivers only needed 10 seconds to solve these problems. At a speed of 110 km/h, each of the drivers was able to complete the tasks within 300 m of the way.
On vehicles with infotainment sensor systems, drivers needed an average of 24.7 seconds. The BMW iX, which combines physical buttons and touchscreens, became one of the most difficult to control: drivers needed at least 30.4 seconds to complete all the tasks. The MG Marvel R. was the worst. It took 44.9 seconds for one of the drivers to complete the tasks. During this time, the car drove 1.3 km.
From Russian owners of Chinese cars, you can hear complaints about hovering and fading displays. In winter, the screens may simply freeze and not respond to pressing. Usually, motorists display navigator readings on the central display via Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. In many cars, to switch from the map, for example, to the climate control menu, you need to make a few taps, which also distracts attention from the road.
Loved the buttons
In 2020, Autoevolution called the lack of physical buttons in Tesla one of the worst automotive trends, but then "touchiness" became a universal trend. Now, a third-party company has developed a Ctrl-Bar block for teslovods, which is mounted under the central display. It is equipped with two temperature control knobs and four programmable physical buttons.
The Exlantix premium hybrid, recently introduced in Russia, can be equipped with an additional climate control unit with physical buttons and verniers, it is mounted under the central display and operates from a USB connector.
Automakers with the name have already started to abandon touch controls. Hyundai's head of design, Sang Yup Lee, told the Australian magazine Cars Guide that the company retains the physical buttons for safety reasons. They duplicate the control of functions via the touchscreen, but they are easier to find while driving. He said that with autopilot of the fourth level of autonomy, which does not require human intervention, it will be possible to safely use sensors.
Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schaefer admitted in an interview with the British magazine Autocar that replacing analog buttons with touch buttons was a mistake and caused serious damage to the company's reputation. Most of all, car owners did not like the touch panels on the steering wheel, which distract from the road, and climate control. Therefore, on the new Tiguan, the brand returns to the physical keys on the steering wheel.
Cadillac combined touch buttons with real buttons in its first Lyriq electric car.
Challenges from technology
Many innovations annoy car owners, according to the J.D. Power company's Initial Quality Study. The number of problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) has grown to record levels, with an industry average of 194 problems per hundred vehicles in 2024. New technologies are partly to blame.
"The automotive industry is facing a wide range of quality issues unprecedented in the 37-year history of IQS," says Frank Hanley, senior director of automotive benchmarking at JD Power. New problems have been added to the traditional ones. Cars are becoming more complex, offering new technologies, but not always satisfying the owners.
In particular, there are complaints about the work of driver assistance assistants: lane change warning systems and lane-keeping systems, collision warning systems and emergency braking.Often, owners don't understand what the warnings mean. Advanced driver assistance systems designed to save lives and reduce injuries are annoying with inaccurate and annoying signals. There are still problems with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay: most often, car owners face difficulties connecting to their car or losing the connection. Buttons and displays are one of the most problematic categories, especially in electric vehicles. So, Tesla recently switched to buttons on the steering wheel for the horn and turn indicators, which the owners did not like.
Handles and cup holders
Complaints are caused by the seemingly most common elements of the car. For the sake of wireless charging, manufacturers move cup holders to inconvenient places and change their size. Problems arise even with door handles, which are increasingly being made extendable, inspired by the example of Tesla. Moreover, it is the owners of electric vehicles who complain about them the most.
The danger of sliding handles is illustrated by a series of high-profile accidents. In 2020, Yoon Hong Geun, a well-known lawyer and close friend of the president of South Korea, died in Seoul. A Tesla Model X crossover crashed into a parking wall and caught fire, but firefighters were unable to open the rear doors as the electronic handles failed. In April last year, an Aito M7 on a highway in Shanxi Province in northern China was involved in an accident and caught fire, killing three people, including a two-year-old boy. The automatic emergency braking system did not work due to the high speed of the car (115 km/h), and rescuers had to open the car doors manually, as the locks of the sliding door handles did not work due to damaged wiring. In another high-profile accident in China in March this year, three people were killed in the latest Xiaomi SU7 electric car. There were rumors that the car's door handles did not work, but later the company assured that the doors could be opened mechanically, even if the battery was damaged.
They don't trust autopilot
Car owners are not against new technologies that help the driver, an S&P Global Mobility study conducted this spring found. The most desired function of the driver assistance and car safety complex (ADAS, Advanced Driver Assistance System) was the blind spot warning, 83% of consumers voted for it. More than 80% of the respondents want to have a collision warning system and a rear-view camera. Automatic emergency braking (AEB) with recognition of cyclists and pedestrians, as well as night vision, are popular. At the same time, motorists still do not trust semi-autonomous driving systems.
Analysts specify that preferences depend on the region. China shows the highest interest in autonomous driving technologies, while the United States, Great Britain and Germany show the lowest.
Economy versus ergonomics
— You can get used to everything, a person generally adapts well. But there is a science of ergonomics that you can't go against. If we look at the evolution of audio equipment, there is still such a simple thing as a volume control. Because it is easy to find and intuitive: to the left — quieter, to the right — louder. When we are dealing with a car, it is important to balance design and convenience in the usual sense of a driver," says Maxim Kadakov, editor—in-chief of Za Rulem. The main function of a driver, Kadakov noted, is to drive a car, and he must find and change all the additional ones with rapid movement.
According to the expert, the craze for touch screens can be explained by the cost factor: China produces millions of them, and in terms of one piece they have become very cheap.
— It is much easier for a manufacturer to cram control of several functions into one screen than to put separate buttons and pull wires to each one, — Maxim Kadakov believes.
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