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?
The most tactile switch in a car is a keyed ignition switch.
I have a few of those. A beautiful thing.
Didn’t China just ban that stuff? So we’re communist now? We should teriff them double now. And require touchscreen for everything. – From the office of the president
Ford should pay $900 million just for the absolute crime of putting the HVAC controls inside the touch screen.
“What’s the most tactile button, knob, or switch on any car?”
If I were in the UK I’d say its the knob behind the wheel.
COTD.
“Ford Got A Surprise $900 Million Tariff Bill To End The Year”
So Ford Execs, you STILL wanna keep kissing Trump’s ass and keep voting Republican?
The idea that voting Republican is good for business needs to permanently die.
OK, but imagine how much they can save when unions are abolished?
All they need to do is pay out the ass now and for the foreseeable future and maybe shoot over a few
bribesdonations to the Trump-Kennedy centerI heartily agree with varied buttons & switches. The million-button Buicks of the ’80s and ’90s weren’t just absurd looking, but also impossible to figure. Who can remember that recirculate air is 2 down, 3 over in a bank of 20 identical button?
On the plus side, I’ve always loved power seat controls that mimic the seats themselves. What could be more intuitive?
Maybe Maserati will be next to hire the phone designer, and find a way to put a rotary dial in the interior to control something. That would be fun and tactile. Dial 1 for defrost, 2 for A/C, 4 for passenger eject, 6 for E-parking brake, 5 for sport mode, etc.
The new Maserati Quadroporte features an interior designed by the revived corpse of Alexander Graham Bell.
I’m a big fan of the temperature control knobs on 2022+ Hondas. Also, the Teardrop shift knob on my Type R is my favorite.
Cost savings is always touted as a benefit to touchscreen heavy design, but the cost of cars does not reflect this, so I don’t give two shits about the money it saves OEMs.
Manufacturers love touchscreens. So much less wiring to pay for. So much more profit when the customer has to replace an entire touchscreen rather than a single window switch. Before touchscreens they had to make buttons, knobs, and switches. The feel of those was important, it was a primary quality differentiator. Turn a headlight knob in W126 and it felt like you had energized a torpedo. In an ’80s Cadillac and it felt like you were twisting a ditch reed in a can of oatmeal.
A Big Rig’s manual transmission handled by a damp, lotioned hand.
Mind out of the gutter, people.
The problem is they prioritize visual coherence, and having a bunch of different button styles/colors/shapes makes that VERY difficult. You end up looking like a Fischer Price preschool playset (hence your “entertains toddlers” bit).
E pig? Really?
Oh, that’s a q, and it’s supposed to flow together as a homonym of Epic…
Yeah, no. E pig it is.
And yet I just read an article yesterday mentioning what a genius Elon was for trading in all of the cost and manufacturing complexity of knobs and buttons for a single touch screen.
I like BMW’s version, in which you have a knob which you can use to scroll and select various functions without having to reach out and touch something. I didn’t even know the screen in my car was touch sensitive for the first six months or so that I owned it, and I virtually never use it as a touch screen. Our Honda has a touch screen and I hate it. My fat fingers are forever getting some godawful radio station instead of the one I’m trying to select.
Was that article written by Sku Melon?
Written by a guy named Andrew Miller. I actually overstated that a bit. He didn’t call Elon a genius and he stated that there is arguably a tradeoff between manufacturing efficiency and safety.
I’ve wondered why in a country where most – but not all – states ban the use of cell phones while driving to some extent, if not completely, it’s OK for car companies to force drivers to use what amounts to a big cell phone to control so many functions in a car. How does that make sense? I smell payola.
It doesn’t make sense. And the restrictions that each vehicle applies seems arbitrary and determined by the manufacturer. (I can go through sub menus to change vehicle settings but I can’t pair a new phone? Ok, sure).
I’ve said this on previous articles, but I’ll say it again. The reason cars used to only show you a handful of characters on your radio screen (the station name, artist, and song name broken into a bunch of chunks) is because there’s a requirement based on how long your eyes can be diverted from the road to read the screen.
AND YET, now you can scroll through your Spotify downloads, change your map routes, and in some cases are forced to change screens to adjust your HVAC. It got out of hand a while ago and now it’s probably too late to fix it.
What’s the most tactile knob on any car?
The driver. ;^)
I’m not a fan of touchscreens in an auto, but I will acknowledge it does give the manufacturer some degree of flexibility and cost savings. I certainly agree that for the most common functions like HVAC, volume, and driving functions, dedicated physical controls are the only way to go!
That said, I think a MUCH better application of touch screens is to supplement the touch screen itself with physical “soft keys’ along the bottom, and maybe sides .I don’t want to touch my touch screen if I can help it.
These physical soft keys would change function based on the screen in use, and would be plainly identified and possibly have different physical shapes and feel. A nice compromise when you must have those screens.
Even better if 1 or 2 of the soft keys could be configured to save a favorite series of functions or commands (like “all windows down and sunroof open”) or (CarPlay NOW”).
Here’s an example of a rather expensive radio with a built in color touch screen. The screen has physical buttons on the bottom and side. It’s very rare to ever actually touch the screen.
https://static.dxengineering.com/global/images/prod/xlarge/kwd-ts-890s_xl_xl.jpg
Somehow, an old-timey radio had two knobs and two bezels. Volume, tuning, tone, and balance. HVAC had a dial/switch for fan speed, a dial/slide for temperature control, and a method of selecting where the air was to be expelled. These covered 90+ percent of adjustments needed and could be done by reach and touch. Touchscreens are a solution in search of a problem that was solved decades ago.
You’re thinking of the wrong problem. The problem they’re solving has been around forever, but is worse now with the democratization of tech. It’s “how to convince people they need to buy a new car”.
To expand on that further – They NEED to provide onboard audio controls, but also phone mirroring. Sometimes navigation, but also mirroring your phones navigation. Manual controls of the HVAC, but also controls for automatic climate control and multi-zone and also what happens during remote start and at what temperature. And how sensitive are your cross traffic alerts. And you lane keep assist. And your blind spot monitoring. That’s all the stuff that they “need” to get you to buy a new car. And a lot of that needs a screen, so it’s either just a screen ($), or it’s buttons and a screen ($$$).
I watched Doug DeMuro’s review of the new Rivian R2, and I was disappointed by how much stuff they crammed onto the center screen. I love the interior, but I promise including a row of physical buttons under the center screen would not have ruined it. It’s certainly better than a Tesla because of the steering wheel knobs, blinker/wiper stalk, and gauge screen. But still, moving HVAC controls to the screen is a big miss. It’s also just a big miss generally when the glove box having a manual latch is a notable addition.
The thing is, I’m not anti-screen. I’m just anti-screen for everything. I haven’t been in any new Honda products, but from the pictures, they seem to have the right balance—a moderately sized screen for nav/media, physical controls for just about everything else.
But without a big distracting screen where would the company put ads? And what about the poor young Zoomers/Alphas raised with touchscreens on everything? Do you they think they’ll use buttons like an old?
/s, for the sarcasm-ly challenged…
The most tactile would be the throttle, brake, and steering.
For everything else, I’m not automatically on Team Screens or Team Buttons as long as they are implemented well. Either team can really screw up a UX if given the chance.
The SAFE act sounds like there’s no financial benefit to anyone, so that will definitely get shot down, likely with very little fanfare.
A local media outlet recently posted the story about the lawsuit by the parents of a person who died in a burning Tesla, and at least half the comments were victim blaming.
I feel your second paragraph whole-heartedly. Local media commentary is the 4th item in the saying about things that always tell the truth: Children, Drunks, and Yoga Pants.
I could see it having the support of automakers who feel like they need to use electronic door handles because it’s cool or some shit. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think for most of them it’s more hassle than it’s worth and they are only doing it because their market research group tells them they have to.
I must have missed the drama over the Ferrari interior. My take is that it looks like an upscale economy car interior and doesn’t really suit a Ferrari.
Its 100% on brand for Jonny Ive though, so they got what they asked for.
I hope sticking everything on the touchscreen goes away, but that’s doesn’t mean get rid of touchscreens altogether. Stuff that only ever lived on a screen (i.e. entering address, adjusting settings, stuff you do while parked) should be touchscreen. In the teens a bunch of automakers tried some kind of knob or joystick and they all fucking sucked. They actually demand much more focus than a touchscreen because you have to see where the pointer is. Please do not bring those monstrosities back.
a good rotary volume knob is one of the most important features. Followed by rotary HVAC controls.
The a/c switch on a 1978 Chevy K10 is the most tactile slide switch you’ll ever meet. It even squeaks when you move it.
My 73 didn’t have AC, but I can still remember the feel of the sliding heat controls and fan speed toggle.
I also remember the delicate looking chrome turn signal stalk that controlled nothing other than the turn signal.
I remember those!
Yes, the fan speed selector switch on GMS old vacuum operated hvac units. They had a long throw between speeds and a stiff, mechanical detent you could feel.
That’s what she said
ROFL!