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.

  • Ronno@feddit.nl
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    1 day ago

    Yeah perhaps. I can imagine that the indicator buttons on Tesla’s was the final straw to take this action, before other manufacturers started pulling of weird shit like that.

      • Ronno@feddit.nl
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        8 hours ago

        Ferrari’s implementation is also simply better. Button on the left for left indicator, button on the right for right indicator. But still, it’s not great to use on roundabouts. The reason nobody cared when it was added to Ferrari’s is because it’s not a mass produced product. EuroNCAP score doesn’t really matter for Ferrari and other sports car manufacturers anyways. They could have a 1 star rating and still be sold, because the car isn’t about safety.

        • Tja@programming.dev
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          7 hours ago

          Yup, that’s what I meant with more logical. Teslas up and down for left and right was a deal breaker for me, even before all the Nazi stuff that happened after.