from Hacker News

Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again

by ecliptik on 5/5/25, 12:13 PM with 11 comments

  • by BehindBlueEyes on 5/5/25, 3:03 PM

    Finally! A friend was an in-house reseacher at some car manufacturer, whose job is to usability tests car prototypes, including in real traffic.

    She was telling me about one study in particular to try a new touch screen built behind the handbrake, pretty much at 5 o'clock behind the driver. I'm sure she's not the only one sharing usability reports about how dangerous touchscreens are while driving, but marketing needed to advertise one more screen than the competition... This was 5 years ago. Took them a while to pivot, but i guess better late than never.

  • by nicwolff on 5/5/25, 9:08 PM

    My wife and I rented a midsize from Budget this weekend and got a Dodge Hornet R/T, which is their current sporty hybrid (a rebadged Alfa Romero Tonale). The media and climate controls were of course integrated into a big touchscreen and totally baffling to a simple software architect like me.

    Fortunately its engine also chewed itself up, and they begrudgingly replaced it with a new low-spec Toyota RAV4 which had wonderfully ergonomic controls: a nice little touchscreen for CarPlay, and below it big knobs and and an LED screen for FAN and TEMP.

  • by marklubi on 5/5/25, 6:14 PM

    Doesn't matter if they don't sort other things out. The physical buttons they do add are tied in to the operating system.

    My son thought I was crazy when I complained about the window down buttons not registering when I fully pushed them down, and the defrost buttons not working on the first press, until he experienced it a couple of times himself.

  • by zwieback on 5/5/25, 9:29 PM

    I'm glad to hear that but only if the buttons, wires and connectors are high quality. Pretty sure one of the reasons for everything touchscreen is cost. My mom's BMW has a sort of joystick/knob/button that controls what's displayed on the screen which is an okay compromise.

  • by piperswe on 5/5/25, 2:42 PM

    > Seemingly learning little from Buick’s Riviera, BMW reintroduced touchscreens in 2001.

    Didn't BMW hold off on adding a touchscreen until iDrive 7 a few years ago? Or maybe it was iDrive 6 - either way a long time after 2001.

  • by NN88 on 5/5/25, 3:10 PM

  • by taylodl on 5/5/25, 1:18 PM

    I'm still working on accepting paddle shifters!

  • by NN88 on 5/5/25, 2:55 PM

    Finally