This is an opinion piece. The views are the author’s own.
Picture a new car that asks you to open a menu, tap a submenu and slide a tiny on-screen bar just to change the fan speed. At 65 miles an hour. In the rain. Plenty of drivers don’t have to picture it; they deal with it every day, and it’s hard to see how this counts as progress.
Here’s my point, plainly: the basic controls in a car should be buttons, knobs and stalks you can find without looking. Touchscreens are fine for maps and music libraries. They are a bad way to turn on the defroster.
We already have the evidence
In 2022, the Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare timed drivers doing a handful of basic tasks, like adjusting the temperature and the radio, in 11 newer cars and one 2005 Volvo V70 with old-fashioned buttons. Driving at 110 km/h (about 68 mph), the old Volvo let drivers finish everything in under 10 seconds, covering about 306 meters, or roughly 1,000 feet. The worst modern car took 44.6 seconds. That’s about 1,372 meters, or more than four-fifths of a mile, of driving while poking at a screen.
Some touchscreen cars did reasonably well, which tells you it’s a design choice, not an inevitability.
Europe is pushing back
Euro NCAP, the group that runs Europe’s crash-safety ratings, decided to start rewarding physical controls under its protocols from January 2026. To earn top marks, cars need separate physical controls for the turn signals, hazard lights, horn, windshield wipers and the emergency SOS call. As Euro NCAP’s Matthew Avery said when the change was announced, overuse of touchscreens is an industry-wide problem.
That’s a modest list. Nobody is asking automakers to rip out their screens. They’re asking that the things you need in a hurry, or in bad weather, be reachable by feel.
The fair counterargument
Screens are cheaper to build than rows of switches, they can be updated over the air and they make a dashboard look clean. I understand the appeal on a spreadsheet and in a showroom. Voice controls can help too, when they work.
But a car isn’t a phone. On a phone, a confusing menu wastes a few seconds of your time. In a car, it takes your eyes off the road. The cost savings go to the manufacturer; the risk stays with the driver.
What I’d like to see
- Physical controls for anything safety-related, and for climate basics like fan speed, temperature and defrost.
- Volume on a real knob. Always.
- Car reviewers and buyers treating “can I do this without looking?” as a standard test drive question.
Until then, my advice is simple: on your next test drive, try turning up the heat without taking your eyes off the road. If you can’t, keep shopping.
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