One of the worst trends in the modern automotive industry is deleting physical controls for options buried on a screen. The days of being able to twist a knob or punch a button without looking at it are being challenged, but you’d think some automakers would stick with the logical choice. Well, even Volvo has given in.
Matt wrote a Morning Dump that mentioned that he’s at a Volvo press event with company brass on hand. Per our usual, he asked what you’d like to know. Stef Schrader (hi!) came in hot:
WHERE ARE THE INTERIOR BUTTONS, VOLVO? WHY HAVE YOU TAKEN THE NICE, EASY-TO-USE INTERIOR BUTTONS AWAY, VOLVO??? WHY IS THE BRAND THAT MADE ITS NAME FOR SAFETY REPLACING CONTROLS THAT YOU CAN JUST SLAP OR TWIST BY FEEL WITH ANNOYING ON-SCREEN CONTROLS WITH TINY TEXT THAT TAKE MY ATTENTION AWAY FROM THE ROAD…VOLVO???
(I’m so tired).
That story also mentioned that Ford is working on a small Bronco. Data:
If it is a smaller Bronco, just call it the Bro.
Ottomottopean:
Is Ford just reviving the Bronco II? Seems like we’ve already done this.
Taargus Taargus:
Bronco II 2: Electric Boogaloo.
Fineheresyourdamn70dollars:
Bronco ][e.
Sid Bridge:
Ford Exec: We want to announce the new member of the Bronco family this week. Is it ready?
Ford Engineer: No. No it is not ready. We haven’t even finished the clay model. We have no idea what the powertrain looks like. The napkin sketch I’m working off of has a smiley face in the blue oval.
Ford Exec: Well, we have to announce something. Give me something to work with here.
Ford Engineer: Fine. Tell them it’s A dynamic, fully electric small SUV carrying the same rally-bred design language and drive dynamics in an urban-friendly package.
Ford Exec: Ok. What’s that mean?
Ford Engineer: I recommend you don’t take questions.
We sent a reader to a Nissan Z press event, and they had great fun. Eggsalad:
“[S]ome of the quicker lap times ever set by a Lotus Elise”
Not her real name.
Jatco Xtronic CVT is back:
One can hope Nissan will someday propose to celebrate arguably their greatest powertrain component, one that has stood, ridiculed, alongside their celebrated V6s, providing efficiency, reliability, and luxurious performance…
Finally, Jason wrote about how the Ford Bronco Sport is one of the chunkiest cars with a three-cylinder engine. Trust Doesn’t Rust:
I’m pretty sure there’s an ’09 Chevrolet Malibu down the street that’s only running on three cylinders. Does that count?
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top graphic image: Volvo
Why is Stef shouting in all caps. Trump style? Are they that mad? In the winter, when I fly down from WA to CA to visit 90-year-old mom, don’t want to deal with snow and chains over the Siskiyous and have to rent a car, it is a little frustrating to figure out how to do basic things in really the cheapest and most basic thing I can rent. I have had to resort to thumbing through the owner’s manual, which thankfully, is still in the glove box. And thankfully, the glove box can be opened by the pull of a little lever on its front. Having to energize the car and then wade through menus would probably make me type in all CAPS.
Say it with me, FUCK VOLVO. Me abd all ny homies HATE modern volvo & polestar. I will elaborate if needed. As of right now they produce NOTHING of value to me. Even Tesla and suzuki still do.
WHERE ARE THE INTERIOR BUTTONS, VOLVO? WHY HAVE YOU TAKEN THE NICE, EASY-TO-USE INTERIOR BUTTONS AWAY, VOLVO??? WHY IS THE BRAND THAT MADE ITS NAME FOR SAFETY REPLACING CONTROLS THAT YOU CAN JUST SLAP OR TWIST BY FEEL WITH ANNOYING ON-SCREEN CONTROLS WITH TINY TEXT THAT TAKE MY ATTENTION AWAY FROM THE ROAD…VOLVO???
I mean, if you’d driven any of Volvo’s recent cars since the XC90 II debuted in late 2015, you wouldn’t be surprised. They’ve been steadily deleting controls, and they were fairly early adopters in doing so, industry-wise. My 2017 Volvo had a drive-mode selector; my 2022 put that in the touchscreen. My 2022 Volvo had an interior light dimmer; my 2024 put that in the touchscreen.
I feel like screens make fiscal sense on budget cars because, well, they’re cheap. I would hope that luxury automakers (with bigger profit margins per-vehicle) would have the chutzpah to keep/resume using physical buttons/knobs for legacy and tactile reasons. Many times what you are paying for for luxury goods is superior “feel,” which is not something a screen can provide.
If honda’s making it work and hyundai & VW are planning to, Volvo and the Germans have zero excuses.
Touchscreens may be cheap to build, but they will be expensive or impossible to fix some day. Heck, the other day the touchscreen in my Honda got baked on a sunny California afternoon and I couldn’t change radio stations for a few minutes until the A/C got it calmed down. And I was relieved that its impairment wasn’t permanent. What is it… the Cadillac XLR, that the car is essentially totaled when some weird LED tail light goes out. Jason?
I think after you live with it for awhile it will become a non-issue. Anything with a modern touchscreen only will typically have very good emergency braking should your eyes go off the road for too long.
Why do it in the first place? There’s plenty of space for a big screen and physical controls in a car. Why create the problem then hope new tech makes is slightly safer to use than it otherwise would’ve been?
100% its to save money. But also theres a whole generation of people starting to drive that grew up with touchscreens. I am pretty sure most 16 year olds dont care if its a touchscreen or a button.
They (“the younger generation”) will care when it costs them a ton of money to fix it.
I ask…because I care.
The more touchscreen-heavy new cars I end up testing, the more I’m convinced that I’ve landed in the bad place. Even Mazda and Porsche are pulling this nonsense now. Honda’s basically my only hope left for quasi-sane UI. If we lose Honda, I don’t know, man. I don’t know. They’ll have to pry my screen-less 2010 Lancer from my cold, dead hands, either way.
I don’t know which deity I ticked off to end up here because I’m pretty boring and try to be nice, TBH. Too much coffee, maybe? Hanging out too much with the Bad Mormons who’d sneak in a coke at lunch? I mean, at least they serve lattes in Hell if that’s the case.
Funny how Honda having nearly the exact same dash on every vehicle has now become a good thing.
Also funny was the time when my Mormon neighbors had to hide everything that day when my wife and I were having beers with them in their driveway when the church elders made an unannounced visit.
Oh no! Haha.
Yeah, every now and then I’ll see someone remark that it doesn’t feel as special to have so much switchgear on upmarket models shared with the Civic or whatever, but the bar is so low in 2026 and the screen-heavy 2026 version of “”luxury”” design is so unforgivably rancid that yeah, please do repeat the Civic’s dashboard in everything. Throw some softer leather on it or whatever you have to do—just do not add slick control panels or hide more functions on the touchscreen, for the love of my sanity.
Well put. And yeah, I think some leather and maybe a crystal shift knob would do it.
I’m here for the Mormon (ahem LDS) day drinking beer stories myself….
There’s no deity, it’s points.
How many times a day are you telling people that they look prettier when the smile in order to get this many Bad Place points?
I know that I ended up in the bad place for all of those times I’ve microwaved fish in the office.
If anything, I probably ended up with all the bad points for kicking someone’s ass for telling me to smile. (There really is a special place in Hell for that suggestion.)
Whatever dear and fluffy lord exists, you’re surely doing its work by beating up on creeps like that. Carry on.
God is jealous of your Puffalump collection.
I mean, understandable.
Wow. What a thread! Religion and cars. Actually what I end up talking about most in bars. And motorcycles. I avoid politics. I’m not sure when the guy next to me might have a pistol.
You know… All these screens are handling these controls via CAN.
Surely it should be possible to make a set of buttons which plug into the OBDII port, and send the same signals out over the bus? It would unfortunately be very vehicle specific, as even between multiple GM products of the same era I have seen discrepancies in which arbitration IDs handle what information or commands.
Is there enough demand that someone can start working on this for popular models?
Apparently someone has: https://www.thedrive.com/news/this-200-mod-gives-your-tesla-the-buttons-and-knobs-it-shouldve-had
My suspicion – or hope – is that legacy manufacturers will realize that the reason Tesla and the Chinese NEV companies can react with software updates so quickly and so cheaply is that they don’t rely on suppliers for their software – and that coding bespoke firmware for every single model is a crazy waste of resources. So, for instance, every Ford headlight, seatbelt, and infotainment panel talks to the CANBUS the same way as every other Ford headlight, seatbelt and infotainment panel. (Even in a fantasy hypothetical I can’t imagine GM doing this.)
A lot of the Toyotas have sensible UI with real buttons. The current Land Cruiser is a great example of that.
Mmm. The Land Cruiser’s interior is delightfully buttony.
Hyundai at least seems to be commited to keeping most things as buttons with their “pleos” system they just showed off. As will be the case with VW. But yes, only Honda and GM seem to be committed to keeping all the physical controls, and even then, just in this market. Honda is selling cars elsewhere with full touchscreen too.
“Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel…”
What part of it wasn’t clear?
Where were they going, and what kind of time are they going to have?
To the roadhouse, to have a real, a good time, sir.
Well, I woke up this morning. So I guess I’ll get myself a beer.
Yes, sir. Life’s uncertain and the end is always near.
Time to show y’all The Door.
Why don’t you show me the way to the next whiskey bar?
Let it roll aaaaaaalllll night long.
Oh, don’t ask why…
My first COTD as a member! Yay!
I chuckled when I read it!
First of many to come, I’m sure.
Excellent work!
You’re responsible for bringing the egg salad sandwiches to the next COTD meeting.
Now that’s a meeting I might actually show up to! Though I’m leaving early, I don’t trust y’all an hour after loading up on egg salad sandwiches. That room might become a biohazard.
The key to the best egg salad is to fill up the mix with roasted garlic.
Jeez, one COTD and now you’re all like, “Why don’t you try cannibalism?” 😛
With roasted garlic!
Congrats!