It’s so wonderfully simple: a swipe here, a tap there, and your smartphone shows you the new possible love or even just the way to the pizzeria. Many car manufacturers have tried to adapt this type of operation. In recent years, they have turned their vehicles into something like rolling tablets. The touchscreen is essentially the final consequence of the fact that cars have long since become computer-controlled machines.
But not quite yet. Despite all the industry’s loud announcements, fully autonomous cars remain a promise. The Apple Group has even stopped its billion-dollar car project – because without full autonomy it could hardly offer more than other manufacturers.
So people still have to keep an eye on what’s happening on the road themselves. But they do better if they can actually do at least some of the tasks with one hand. The more functions touchscreens took over, the more the realization grew: what applies to cell phones will still apply to cars for a long time not the best of all solutions be – because the touchscreens put people behind the wheel too distracting.
The first manufacturers have already reacted. VW, for example, wants to install more buttons and switches in its new cars, the company announced in mid-2023. It’s not just about safety, customers also complained. It’s often just too cumbersome to tap and swipe around on a touchscreen in the car. And you have to look at it, unlike a normal volume button for a car radio. You can find it just as well blind.
Now EU security experts have upped the ante. Euro NCAP is threatening to lower car safety ratings if manufacturers only make too many functions accessible via the touchscreen. NCAP stands for European New Car Assessment Program, which is an organization based in Brussels that consists of members of European transport ministries, automobile clubs and insurance associations. It awards the well-known star ratings for car safety. The NCAP wants to develop proposals for more traditional switches and buttons.
They are not mandatory, but if a touchscreen overloaded with functions costs one star in the future, it could encourage manufacturers to rely more on traditional controls again. Take Tesla, for example: whose vehicles are characterized by huge screens in the middle of the dashboard. Many functions can only be controlled via this.