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Go low-tech: Over the last few years, Volkswagen has removed physical buttons in its vehicles, choosing to bake control settings into its infotainment panel. Now, the company is backtracking. It’s a controversial trend that has stirred monumental debate within the auto industry between customers who hate it and carmakers loving the advertising opportunities.
Volkswagen will bring back physical controls for some of its vehicles’ most essential cabin controls. According to Andreas Mindt, head of design for the German carmaker, replacing buttons with touchscreen controls was a mistake. A mistake the designer promised never to repeat.
Mindt confirmed the change during a recent interview. The first car the controls will return to is the Volkswagen ID 2all model, a budget electric car set to arrive in 2026 in Europe. The knobs and switches include sound system volume, heating on each side of the car, fans, and hazard light.
Volkswagon will continue applying the changes to every new car from assembly lines. The physical buttons are not limited to the center console, either. Drivers can enjoy limited driving distractions from added steering-wheel controls. Trying to tap non-tactile buttons on a touchscreen has never been the best solution, no matter the carmaker. Mindt noted that physical buttons provide tangible feedback that does not require drivers to take their eyes off the road.
Mindt mentioned that customers and reviewers criticized Volkswagen’s design team when it went all-in the infotainment center controls. Touch interfaces will continue to play an increasingly important role in Volkswagen’s center consoles, with bigger screens and more human-machine interfaces. However, the physical functions will remain accessible through the car’s physical interface layer.
The automotive industry has debated touchscreen-based infotainment platforms for a few years now. Touch controls are cheaper to produce and more in line with today’s digital ecosystem, but they aren’t necessarily the best choice from a safety standpoint.
A few years ago, a Swedish magazine tested drivers’ ability to control cabin functions using the touchscreen with a control group with physical controls. Unsurprisingly, drivers in the car with physical buttons (Volvo V70) performed better than models that only had a touchscreen. More recently, the European New Car Assessment Programme said that vehicles need physical controls for at least five cabin functions to earn the organization’s highest safety rating.
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