Enough of Touch Screen Overload: Time Automakers Embrace Simplicity

Key Takeaways

• Touch screens have downsides, like requiring drivers to take their eyes off the road.
• Physical controls are safer, simpler, and more reliable than touch screens.
• Expect future cars to have a balance of touch screens and physical controls for safety and usability.

Big touch screens give modern vehicles a real sci-fi vibe, but there’s a reason old-fashioned knobs and controls have been the go-to choice for controlling your car’s features for a century. Touch screens have their place, but automakers are going a little overboard, if you ask me.

Touch Screens Have Many Downsides

While a touch screen is fine on a phone or laptop, operating one while driving isn’t the best idea. Because there’s no tactile feedback, you have to look over at the screen in order to make your selection. Any control system that requires a driver to take their eyes off the road is logically a safety issue.

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I don’t know if Tesla is officially the brand that started the trend of having almost all controls on a touch screen, but it’s certainly become more fashionable over the years. Arguably, it makes more sense in a vehicle with advanced driving assists such as a Tesla. AutoPilot users have certainly made a habit of looking at the big touch screen instead of what the car is doing in lots of videos you’ll find on the web, but until true autonomous vehicles become a reality (if ever), this will remain an issue.

It’s also an open question whether these screens need to be so large. I own the KIA Sportage model just before the series got a massive touch screen in the 2023 model update and, honestly, I’m not sure if I could live with such a huge screen long-term. Whereas the small central touch screen my car currently has (so I can use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay) feels like a much more sensible balance.

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Physical Controls Are Safer for Drivers

While the primary safety benefit of physical controls in a car is that you can operate them without looking, that’s not the only reason they are safer. For one thing, touch screens are more complex, more fragile, and more prone to failure than a physical switch or toggle. You can also develop muscle memory to operate your car controls while putting pretty much zero cognitive load on yourself. The controls will always be in the same place and operate the same way.

Putting Everything on One Screen Is a Mistake

The main strength of a screen is that you don’t have to be locked in to a specific user interface layout or design. However, the last thing I would want is to hunt through several menus to operate the AC, or have all my controls changed after an overnight update. Vehicle controls and readouts should be understandable at a glance, and finding controls should take a second or two with minimal attention.

At the very least, I think that a touchscreen should offer redundancy for critical controls. So, while it’s fine to have access to things like the AC, or your car’s warning messages on the touch screen, these should be duplicated with traditional controls or gauges where possible.

Some Lawmakers Are Taking Notice

While we haven’t seen much movement against touch screens as a safety issue in the United States, Euro NCAP will require fewer touch screens in vehicles from 2026 onward to qualify for a 5-star rating. Car makers are encouraged to use physical controls for devices like wipers or turn signals. While these regulations won’t affect regions outside of Europe directly, they are likely to have an effect on car design across the world, since it’s hardly economical to design cars with a reduced number of touch controls just for the European market.

So, expect cars in the future to have both touch screens and ample physical controls, so you can keep your eyes where they belong: on the road!

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