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• Hyundai VP of design says owners are asking for more buttons

• Changes to security testing will impose responsibility for physical controls

• Result: manufacturers are finally rethinking vehicle interiors.

Hyundai is the latest automaker to publicly say it is reintroducing physical buttons in future vehicles, following customer backlash over fiddly and often distracting touchscreen systems.

Ha Hak-soo, vice president of Hyundai Design North America, recently revealed in an interview with Korean magazine JoongAng daily news site that the company had been seduced by the “wow factor” of giant screens and had overlooked the ease and convenience of physical buttons.

“When we tested with our focus group, we realized that people get stressed, bored and exasperated when they want to control something in a pinch but are unable to,” Ha said.

The company joins a growing list of automakers that have seen fit to reintroduce physical controls for key features, like VW turns around on its decision to adopt the screen only in the first electric ID models following negative feedback from the press and the general public.

Thomas Schäfer, then CEO of VW, said the reliance on touchscreens “did a lot of damage” to the brand and that he subsequently revised the infotainment offering during mid-life refreshes of many models of the ID range to include proper, backlit physical displays. buttons for air conditioning, window defoggers and hazard lights.

Additionally, Euro NCAP, Europe’s leading passenger car safety body, said earlier this year that it would “encourage manufacturers to have physical, easy-to-use, touch-sensitive controls for key driving functions such as wipers.” -windows, warning lights and turn signals”. » declared its technical director, Richard Schram Auto-Express.

Analysis: the Tesla effect is to blame

Although very few automakers admit it, the trend toward devoting everything to a large touchscreen is partly due to Tesla and its innovative use of tablet-style infotainment systems.

Before that, traditional brands simply played with screens neatly integrated into the dashboard or center console, often operated via a rotary dial and other switches.

Fast forward to 2009, with the debut of the Tesla Model S, and Mercedes-Benz still had a physical numeric keypad for entering phone numbers. Today, Tesla has gone further by removing turn signal stalks and other automotive pillars.

Things have changed and in-car screens are most certainly here to stay, with Hyundai even recently revealing that it had teamed up with German optics specialist Zeiss to work on a head-up display that covers the entire windshield.

But entrusting everything to a screen and its numerous submenus is, at first glance, frustrating and often downright dangerous. Having to hunt for a slider to adjust the temperature in the cabin is a chore, while asking a clunky AI-powered voice assistant to defrost the rear window is more complicated than simply pressing an easy-to-locate button.

Until we get to the point where highly autonomous vehicles do most of the driving, we still need physical switches and buttons to make life behind the wheel more convenient and safer.

After all, there’s a reason an airplane cockpit looks the way it does and isn’t just a giant touchscreen computer.

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