1078
Volkswagen shifts back to physical buttons on dashboards (www.semafor.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/world@lemmy.world
181 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Volkswagen will restore physical buttons to the dashboard in its latest compact car, part of a wider move away from touchscreens.

In a particularly retro touch, the new ID Polo will even have a volume dial.

For a decade or so, automakers rushed to replace knobs and switches with screens, Autoblog noted in October, but users largely disliked them: Controlling the air conditioning, for example, required delving through submenus while driving, which was both difficult and dangerous. Research found that using touchscreens took longer and distracted drivers.

Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and VW have all announced plans to return to more tactile controls, and US and EU regulators announced last year that cars with touchscreen controls could get worse safety ratings.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 72 points 10 months ago (7 children)

This seems like an obvious improvement and I kind of want everyone who thought otherwise to be banned from working in decision making roles.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
    •
  • [–] 25 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    It's way cheaper and easier to not have to source the buttons. The bean counters saw Tesla get away with doing it on the touchscreen, so they figured they'd get away with it, too.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah, never mind the additional casualties caused by distracted drivers.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Tesla has the highest crash rate of any manufacturer. In particular, rear ending other cars. It's the stupid touchscreen.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Maybe. Not disagreeing but I’ve never seen data to support that, have you? Some people blame it on self-driving, some blame it on the higher performance, and yes the touch screen is plausible. But we need to know. That accident rate is too high to be guessing.

    Unfortunately my experience supports all of the above

    • self driving is continually improving. I trust it much more than previous iterations but I don’t trust it. In my latest test the only dangerous thing it did in two hours was to stop at a yellow light. Technically correct but the idiot behind me expected to drive through. I also took over four times when I wasn’t sure it was going to do the right thing
    • in my first drives I had to see its acceleration - was surprised by it enough to experience fear
    • there are shortcuts to the common screen controls but it’s not always easy to discover them. Voice control works well for me so far
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Imitating the trending brand or model, including their terrible design decisions. It drives me nearly insane that so many companies do this. Look at how many companies have been copying Apple's horrible hardware design decisions over the last few decades. SMDH

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent