{"id":1967378,"date":"2026-06-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1967378"},"modified":"2026-06-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T21:00:00","slug":"are-proper-physical-buttons-making-a-comeback-in-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1967378","title":{"rendered":"Are proper physical buttons making a comeback in cars?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For years we\u2019ve been told by carmakers that drivers prefer controls on a touchscreen, because they\u2019re \u2018familiar with smartphones\u2019. But now, like old king Canute failed to do, we\u2019re turning back the tide.<\/p>\n

Sir Jony Ive, who at Apple pioneered bringing touchscreen interfaces into our hands, has been engaged to work on a car, the new Ferrari Luce EV<\/a>. He told Top Gear\u2019s Jason Barlow: \u201cPractically and functionally, a large touchscreen doesn\u2019t work in a car. That\u2019s incontrovertible.\u201d So the Luce has a beautiful and useable mix of physical and screen-based instruments and controls.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Why doesn\u2019t an all-screen interface work in a car? I\u2019ve been banging on for years that it\u2019s about the environment. An iPad is designed to enchant<\/em> your gaze; you stare at it as you interact. A car interface has to reject<\/em> your gaze. You\u2019re meant to be looking out of the windscreen, stupid. So in a car you need things your fingers can find with a glance.<\/p>\n

Ive\u2019s and Ross Lovegrove\u2019s work on the Luce illustrates something else, too. Physical stuff is where the sense of quality lies. Done well it\u2019s tactile and jewel-like and gorgeous. See also the instruments on the Bugatti Tourbillon<\/a>, like a six-figure mechanical watch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Audi\u2019s design chief Massimo Frascella was dissed by his Mercedes oppo Gorden Wagener for the Concept C\u2019s small screen. Frascella unrepentantly explained his thinking to me: \u201cThis mix of digital and analogue, the tactility, the metal parts, the perception of quality is important for Audi. We talk about the Audi click<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the Chinese, who along with Tesla have been villains-in-chief in all this, appear to be getting it. The facelifted MG4 acquired some extra metal buttons and rocker switches. Elsewhere the Cupra Born and Golf GTI have swapped ghastly touch-sensitive steering wheel buttons (too easily brushed when you\u2019re turning) for actual switches that, ironically, were reserved for the cars closer to basecamp in the group\u2019s price elevation. Ferrari will now retrofit your Roma\u2019s capacitive steering wheel controls with the real buttons from the newer Amalfi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Obviously your car has too many functions these days for everything to have its own button. There\u2019d be hundreds. Imagine a 1990 BMW 850i\u2026 squared. But climate controls and ADAS, at the very least, need them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years we\u2019ve been told by carmakers that drivers prefer controls on a touchscreen, because they\u2019re \u2018familiar with smartphones\u2019. But now, like old king Canute failed to do, we\u2019re turning back the tide. Sir Jony Ive, who at Apple pioneered bringing touchscreen interfaces into our hands, has been engaged to work on a car, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1967378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1967378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1967378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1967378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1967378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}