I’m driving a press car right now with no rear window and a giant touchscreen for its controls. It sucks. I do not like it. You know who agrees with me? The guy who designed the iPhone. So that’s something.
The Morning Dump is all about access today. If you can’t access your route while driving, that’s annoying, but if you can’t access your door while trapped in a sinking car, that’s potentially fatal. A bill to make it easier to find your way out of the car just advanced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ford is the last of the Detroit 2.5 to report its annual earnings, which were weak in spite of stronger sales. Some of that was due to a surprise $900 million tariff bill. You know what’s also a surprise? A Škoda to end TMD. Just kidding, you probably all expected it.
The Guy Responsible For Your Smartphone Addiction Says Touchscreens Are Wrong For Cars
There were a lot of feelings in the comments over the new Ferrari interior design, which was penned by former Apple design guru and iPhone legend Jony Ive. I conceptually enjoy this interior abstractly, though I’m not sure I love it as a Ferrari as much as Brian did. Either way, it looks good.
Ive has been out talking to the press, and this quote in Autocar caught my eye:
“The reason we developed touch [for the iPhone] was that we were developing an idea to solve a problem. The big idea was to develop a general-purpose interface that could be a calculator, could be a typewriter, could be a camera, rather than having physical buttons.
“I never would have used touch in a car [for the main controls]. It is something I would never have dreamed of doing because it requires you to look [away from the road]. So that’s just the wrong technology to be the primary interface.”
Asked how the Luce’s touchscreen differs from others, given his comments, Ive replied: “So much of what we did was so that you could use it intuitively, enjoy it and use it safely.
It’s true, though, there are too many interfaces where you have to do everything on a touchscreen. This is the Tesla approach, and it’s been copied by way too many people. I just had to duck through a few menus on a trip yesterday in order to get the vents on my Polestar to stop driving air into my eyeballs.
I also love the idea here that Ive discusses about having different buttons feel different, so that it’s obvious what you’re touching. Even in cars without a touchscreen, the variety of surfaces and styles isn’t always prioritized.
Not only should automakers bring back more buttons and reduce screens, but they should also give time to make all sorts of different fun buttons to use. It’s what entertains toddlers and, frankly, automotive journalists.
The SAFE Exit Act Moves Forward
The space between a bill being written and becoming a law is vast, so I don’t cover every law that’s written. One I do care about is the Securing Accessible Functional Emergency Exit Act, or SAFE Exit Act.
It asks for two things:
‘‘(1) a power independent, easy-to-find manual release for each door providing occupant egress, which shall be intuitive to use and readily accessible for the occupant; and
‘‘(2) means for emergency responder access to the occupant compartment when vehicle electrical power is lost.
As I’ve written before, people are waking up to the idea that maybe making it hard to find the mechanical exit for a vehicle was slightly flawed. This bill would help solve this issue and, at least, has moved through its first legislative hurdle and should get a vote in full committee.
Let’s see who kills it first!
Ford Got A Surprise $900 Million Tariff Bill To End The Year
Ford released its full-year earnings, and the numbers aren’t incredible. This isn’t a shock as the company already announced it would take various write-downs on special times. The company did improve its market share in the United States, but it relied heavily on incentives and had to spend money to cover various challenges, just like every other automaker.
Here’s the topline:
- Fourth-quarter and full-year revenue reached $45.9 billion and $187.3 billion,
respectively; fifth consecutive year of full-year revenue growth - Fourth-quarter and full-year net loss of $11.1 billion and $8.2 billion, respectively, reflected impact of special items; fourth-quarter and full-year adjusted EBIT of $1.0 billion and $6.8 billion, respectively
- Full-year operating cash flow was $21.3 billion; adjusted free cash flow was $3.5 billion
- Outlook for full-year 2026 includes adjusted EBIT of $8.0 billion to $10.0 billion, adjusted FCF of $5.0 billion to $6.0 billion; and capital spending of $9.5 billion to $10.5 billion
Not great, not terrible, and the company thinks it’s in a position to improve its margins and earnings in 2026, which is good. The fact that warranty costs are coming down is also a good sign.
Here’s something fun, though, that Bloomberg caught in the earnings call:
The Trump administration informed Ford on Dec. 23 that the company could only apply a measure to trim tariffs paid on imported auto parts dating back to November, rather than May, Chief Financial Officer Sherry House told reporters alongside the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report late Tuesday.
The change effectively doubled Ford’s tariff toll to $2 billion in 2025, she said, a level the company expects to face again this year.
What’s $900 million between friends?
The Škoda Epiq Will Be the Company’s Cheapest EV
The Epiq isn’t a car we’re going to get in the United States, and with its 273-mile WLTP range, it’s not like something that would necessarily appeal to many. It’s an MEB+ platform, FWD-only “City SUV” that’ll allow the brand to reach more customers at the lower end of the market in Europe.
Because it hasn’t been released, the company put out these photos of the vehicle in camo. What … what even is this camo? Are those pills? It’s unhinged, but I love it.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I have performatively mixed feelings about Weezer’s album Pinkerton, when, in reality, I adored it at the time and still enjoy it. Not everything holds up, but “The Good Life” somehow makes dude complains about going to Harvard rock.
The Big Question
What’s the most tactile button, knob, or switch on any car?
I have those rubber-surrounded radio knobs in my Boxster that had the infamous disintegrating rubber issue. When that started happening, they were especially tactile.
My 911 had a similar sticky button issue, which I was able to remedy with q-tips and alcohol.
Weezer peaked with Pinkerton. I’ll die on that hill.
That’s an El Scorcho take, right there.
I drive an EV which has a main touch screen with AAOS but also some buttons. It was part of the reason I bought it. not 100% screens.
I rented car a few months ago and was given a Jeep 4XE (before the recall). It had so many buttons I couldn’t figure how to do anything. It was almost the opposite of everyone complaining about touch screens. So many buttons and knobs and switches!!
There definitely should be a mix of both screen and buttons. use the right tool for the job.
I drive a Jeep Gladiator and feel it’s the perfect amount of buttons vs screen.
The pull out knob to turn on the headlights is something I miss. Pull it and it makes a satisfying “chonk” feeling. When you’re done, push it in and it also gives you a tactile indication that you’ve turned off the lights.
I like the pullout knob lights too but at this point I can’t even remember the last time I actually manipulated the headlights myself. As much as I like to rage against bloat and complexity in cars, automatic headlights work really well.
The extraordinarily expensive, tiny and, inconveniently located where you can’t get to it without opening the hatch, and can’t open the hatch with a dead battery, 12 volt battery in my Prius would disagree with you.
The switch should have a more obvious difference between the lights will turn themselves off soon and the lights are on forever till the battery is dead settings.
Standing in the driveway until they go out then tripping over the cat in the dark defeats the purpose.
I miss the foot switch for the brights on my dad’s old pickup trucks.
One of my dad’s old pickups had a floor button for the starter that my brother discovered when my dad left us in the cab while he ran in to run a quick errand. We also almost ran in(to) the car in front of us. Fortunately, the ignition system wasn’t energized.
Added one for the auxiliary lights behind the grille of my gti. Very satisfying
And if you leave it in between detents in a 30 year old Jeep, it might even randomly turn off the radio, blow a fuse, or disable the dash lights…
I think the vertical stack on Rams is pretty decent. they have redundant control buttons for a lot of things like Heat and AC, you can move widgets around so your home screen is the things you want to find first. my main issue if the camera page, a tactile button on the center console to get the front view cameras to come on without going the camera page, then sifting through the views would be nice though…1st world problem I know.
Remember that post a couple of weeks ago asking what you’d paint your 70’s era van? Well, the Skoda Epiq’s candy-themed wrap is my updated choice.
Who in their right mind wants motorized dash vents that are controlled by a touchscreen? This is dumber than requiring the touchscreen to open the glove box.
I think this air vents you’ll probably be broken in the first few days of ownership, because everyone’s just reaching down and twisting around on them with their hands, as you would expect
Tactile? Aren’t they all? I don’t know of a button that keeps engagement when you take a finger of of it. if we are talking audible or felt engagement, I suppose the turn signal stalk is still it in most cases.
Any control that is located on the actual thing being controlled. Vent controls on the vents. Seat controls on the seats. Glove box release on the glovebox. Fuel filler cover release on the actual fuel filler cover. I could go on.
If I want to spend my time searching for things in weird places I’ll sign up for a damn scavenger hunt.
The Saab vent controls are fun
I think the wrap on that Skoda Epiq is either balls or eggs, not pills. I know WLTP is optimistic, but 273 miles, even if it’s 230ish in real life, isn’t awful if the price is modest/fair. Not that I’d buy another VW product again after having owned several, but America needs a true $25K-or-under EV, and a small FWD crossover would probably be the format with the widest appeal.
Also, on that Ferrari touchscreen in the top photo, is that an actual analog clock inset into the screen (in which case: excellent!) or is is merely an image of an analog clock (in which case: booooo!)?
It’s soggy here this morning. I’m off to sort the good veggies from the rotting ones at the local food bank.
Power seat controls that are shaped like an actual seat. It seems so obvious now but it was a bit of design genius.
You design one little car interior, and suddenly you think you’re an expert on automotive UI.
No, Jony Ive is absolutely correct.
The problem is that he and his firm got to design the interior to a hand-built exotic EV for Ferrari, and that’s not a typical scenario. Other automakers with thinner margins see touchscreens as a great solution because they lower costs. They are, at this point, cheaper than custom button packs for suppliers, not to mention that you need several different button packs for different configurations of the same vehicle. Since the car is going to have a touchscreen anyway, other automakers figure they might as well let it handle crucial functions, as well.
I do think that overall, we’re reaching a point where dial gauges and physical buttons are about to be luxury items for exotic cars. That said, we’ve seen some reversal. The 2026 Outback–ugly as it is–has physical buttons everywhere, where the 2020-2025 relied much more heavily on the touchscreen. Volkswagen has also pledged a commitment to physical buttons.
dial gauges are already there, virtually no mainstream cars use them anymore, even enthusiast oriented models that you’d assume would be the logical last holdouts
You bring up a good point not often mentioned. “Since the car is going to have a touchscreen anyway…”
I’ve often made a similar point here, that there is too much focus on the screen interface while saying that the design is now focused on cost savings rather than actual UX design choices based on the best user interface for a given need. But hadn’t considered how there is definitely already a screen there for a variety of legit uses. So yeah, that being the case, it makes sense that they can’t resist the temptation to use it more and more.
My question is, is this due to interior designers’ desire to clean up the interior of all the busy buttons and switches? Or is this someone in finance/procurement looking at this from the POV of how they can cut costs, drooling at the prospect of moving everything they can in there.
I can just imagine the conversations about glove box releases and vent controls between a designer, software engineer and bean-counter about some of these dumb decisions.
Cigarette lighter. Floor headlight dimmer switch (I really miss these).
I love my floor dimmer, its so convenient and lets you know your foot was accurate with a satisfying metal thunk
I like my music like your floor dimmers.
A satisfying metal thunk? May have the gain set too high on the amp.
Floor dimmer switch! And headlight switch! Both of those are indeed very satisfying.
Another I haven’t noticed being mentioned yet is a manual choke. Lots of feels there as well.
I prefer a cable hand throttle on an old diesel. twist to fine adjust idle, pull to raise RPM.
Very handy when you’re running PTO equipment. I still miss our ’85 International 5 ton wrecker we used as a yard dog at the dealership.
Used to just pick up non-running trucks and back em into the shop like a trailer, instead of trying to start them outside.
Hand throttle on old Porsche 911s too.
I always liked fiddling with the manual spark advance on my old BSA. Except for the time I forgot to retard it to start it and it almost broke my leg.
I had a Cordoba that both a headlight dimmer and radio search button on the floor. Both were very satisfying in a kind of visceral way.
Fun fact! Most transit buses have the turn signals on the floor as well. The image here also has a switch for the intercom, but we don’t have that on our buses. Just turn signals and dimmer.
It allows the operator to keep their hands on the wheel. Annoyingly, you have to hold the button down for the turn signals. Takes some getting used to.
I kinda like that idea of the signals on the floor and having to hold them down. Be a little weird in a car but seems pretty trick for something that needs 400 turns of the steering wheel to take a corner.
Power steering sent those gear reduction boxes to the scrapyard. It’s no real difference to driving a car.
Problem is, the general public is allergic to turning the wheel more than 45 degrees.
It’s why people cut corners instead of going deeper in to the intersection and turning tighter.
Hell, ever watch someone backing in/out of a parking space? All the ones that struggle are barely turning the wheel and just shimmying back & forth.
Drivers Ed instructor here. Can confirm, it’s really hard to get the students to turn the wheel all the way
Part of Driver’s Ed should be an Autocross course.
One of my many hats is driver training in transit buses. We spend a LOT of time teaching them how to fully utilize the space around them to navigate the city.
I have used a toy open wheel racing car to show people how to parallel park. Line up rear wheel with back of front car, turn steering all the way, back up etc.
I am convinced that if people learned the close quarters driving and parking in a car where they can see the wheels a lot of the bad habits wouldn’t take root.
A garden tractor would be fine. I learned with a Ford 8n.
Nice big steering wheel, no power steering and alignment just right is heaven.
I love manual steering when moving. Dry steering suuuucks though.
Unassisted steering in a disabled tiny 4,000-lb German roadster with a massive engine sitting on the wheels is NOT heaven.
We had some trucks on the farm, that I can’t remember the manufacturer of – maybe military duce and a half’s? – , that had those same foot switches, but they were for the starter.
I drive a Mazda. It has a click wheel with which I can control the screen. A lot of people hate on it, but I like it.
And then it occurred to me that the click wheel concept dates back to some of the earlier iPod models, and now it all makes sense.
The Mazda click wheel is the prime example of a great feature being ruined by journalists. Every owner I’ve ever talked to loves the puck; reviewers, who only get the car for a week at most, seem to always malign it. Now the puck is going away, when Mazda was the only OEM to actually implement it in a way that worked well.
I rented a Mazda a few months ago and loved the wheel after a few days. Once you memorize the # of clicks/turns to do something, it’s really quick and intuitive.
I really enjoy the feel of the knurling on the knob in my 2026 Mazda 3. I think they used the same one in all the cars.
Close second place is the physical volume knob
Knurled metal knobs with smooth weighted action and detents are heaven.
Plus there’s a separate volume control on the console that also can slide to change tracks or stations on my CX-50. Plus It’s next to the passenger so my wife can turn the volume down.
That cute Skoda looks like every cute Insta model about to get creamed by a wave while posing.
TBQ – I’d have to say the media controls (volume, fwd/back) on my steering wheel. They are perfectly placed so I don’t have to look at them or take my hands off the wheel to know what I am doing.
Second to them, the turn signal and wiper controls stalks, which I’m not sure technically qualify as a button, knob or switch.
The knob behind the wheel.
I feel you, bro.
The steering wheel volume and skip station/song buttons behing the steering wheel are the most useful thing ever created, I dont know who had the original idea but Stellantis and GM use them (GM even added the regen pad along those buttons) and make things so much easier.
When the temperature knob makes a click while you change the setting, chef kiss.
Both of these. Love the radio controls on the backside of the steering wheel, and love when knobs have detents that provide tactile feedback of their position.
Except it always skips the college radio and NPR stations.
It is the 2010 earnings call and Ford says warranty costs are high but are expected to improve
It is the 2018 earnings call and Ford says warranty costs are high but are expected to improve
It is the 2025 earnings call and Ford says warranty costs are high but are expected to improve
…
Comment of the I Just Spent Another Afternoon Changing Out High Temperature Coolant Parts Made From Plastic in a Ford
I wish all cars had the standard 3 knob HVAC controls. I can adjust temperature and fan speed completely blind without looking at them.
I like how they were adjustable even when the HVAC was turned off.
Fun fact: they were designed specifically for blind drivers.
I don’t want a steering wheel on my phone. Why would I want a phone in my car to control everything?
Hey! I remember steering wheel phones.
And how to dial the phone using just the hook.
Old school turn signal knobs that you can hit with your fingers without talking your hands of the wheel are great. Also the foot switch for high beams seems like it would be nice to have back.
The factory short throw shifter on the Tremec TR6060 in my Camaro is pretty damn tactile
Good thing this won’t trickle down to cost the consumer, and we can keep on winning in this country
So interesting how costs trickle down but cost savings never do …
My feelings on the Luce’s interior design aside (as that is a matter of taste), I agree 100% with Jony Ive on touchscreens being the incorrect primary interface for a car.