Cars will need fewer screens and more buttons to earn a 5-star safety rating in Europe | Euro NCAP will introduce new testing rules in 2026 requiring physical controls for the highest safety score
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cars will need to use buttons, dials, or stalks for hazard warning lights, indicators, windscreen wipers, SOS calls, and the horn.
Not enough, in my opinion. I've never had a car with these on touch screens, but I can't imagine why anyone would think it's a good idea. I'd like entertainment centers to stop being touch screens as well, but this doesn't go that far. Hopefully they do in the future, though, since this is a good start!
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Monkey paw curls
Same exact cars but with button navigated non-touch screens.
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I'd take that deal. My touch screen died in my car and guess what can't control it? The steering wheel buttons, despite having full directional/enter/return.
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As someone who drives a mazda with infotainment designed before touchscreens (it has one), I'm fine with this.
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My car is the same. I know the current state of the infotainment based on what is entering my ears. I also know the location of the physical controls and how they alter that state without taking my eyes off the road. Non-touch screens and physical controls is fine.
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I’m actually a fan of big screens, HOWEVER they should be limited to being an actual “infotainment” system only. All essential controls should be buttons, switches, and dials.
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Gimme a keyboard and mouse. I can drive the whole car and operate the infotainment with my 250 apm
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Finally!!!
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Driving and texting is dangerous. Put down that phone and stare at this ipad in your dash! Further the ipad is slow, designed by imbeciles, is glitchy, buggy, and not intuitive and doesn't follow modern design standards.
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Exactly!
This pretty much summarises it.
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thank god. I hope this trend migrates to other countries. The amount of effort/distraction for touch screens combined with the additional cost of having to replace full on infotainment systems is annoying.
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I think I agree. I would be fine with an infotainment system that:
- doesn't cripple the car when broken
- isn't integrated with non-screen controls like climate
- still has functional buttons on the steering wheel
My malibu meets 2 and 3, but the fact that if the infotainment system breaks it cripples the entire car, puts me on edge. This would be mitigated if actual functionality was outside of it, and that the touch screen was just a control layer.
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I consider temperature and fan controls to be safety critical for demisting windows etc for example.
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now with #ADS, please tap the x to continue changing your GPS.
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Not far enough indeed.
I dont need all my entertainment as physical controls but I do at least want volume - and that is totally justifiable as a safety consideration too. Sometimes you need to mute it quickly if you think you heard something of concern on the road - or if you are like me, just to concentrate on driving when things get tricky..
There are so many other items you can apply similar safety arguments for:
Blowers and demisters - you shouldn't be messing around in a touchscreen when you see your windows starting to fog
Cabin temperature - Uncomfortable driver = distracted driver
In my opinion, the place to draw the line should be this:
If the driver always has the luxury of choosing when to engage with the feature, then it can be fully touchscreen. (example - entertainment except volume, fuel economy settings, electric seat position)
If the need to interact with the feature is triggered by external conditions and will happen in motion, it MUST be physical. (Example: wipers, heating, blowers, all headlight and fog light controls, enable or diasable lane assist, cruise control)
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I hope the standard makes it clear that touch buttons are about as bad as a touch screen is
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If they could ban the "confirm you know the rules of the fucking road" dialogue box that would be great.
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What, keeping a rag on hand to wipe away the fog on the windshield every 3 minutes isn't safe enough?
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Screen consoles in 4000lb bullets were the dumbest engineering idea ever. It’s probably a contributing factor as to why accident rates are up.
Up until 2018 I could manipulate my entire console without shifting my eyes from the road. Doing this by touch alone only works with physical buttons and knobs.
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How about just banning touchscreen use while driving altogether?
