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Cars Without Buttons And Switches Will Soon Get Poorer Safety Ratings In Europe

In case you haven’t noticed, the entire auto industry is moving away from hard buttons and switches and towards more controls in the infotainment screen, including controls for the stereo, HVAC system, and even vehicle lights. Tesla is perhaps the automaker that most consumers associate with this type of control scheme, but GM is headed in a similar direction, much to the chagrin of critics who claim that infotainment-based controls are more dangerous than hard buttons and switches. Now, it appears as though a safety body in Europe agree with those critics, giving cars without buttons and switches a poorer safety rating.

Some cars, like the 2023 Chevy Colorado, could get dinged for lacking certain hard buttons.

Per a report from The Times, Euro NCAP, an automotive industry safety body, is set to introduce new safety standards that will penalize automakers that rely too heavily on touchscreens for basic driving functions. The new rules will be introduced by January of the 2026 calendar year.

Under the new rules, the criteria for a five-star safety rating will include a requirement for physical buttons controlling five specific tasks, including activation of the turn signals, activation of the hazard lights, activation of the horn, activation of the windshield wipers, and using the eCall SOS function.

The push for physical controls is a response to an industry-wide trend to move controls for cars on to the vehicle touchscreen. Placing additional controls on a touchscreen can free up real estate for other vehicle features, such as storage, as well as offering a cleaner overall look. However, critics argue that relegating vehicle controls to the infotainment screen is dangerous, as it requires that drivers look away from the road in order to use the screen. By comparison, physical buttons can be operated by touch only, as drivers can feel the buttons and their placement.

While not mandatory, the new rules will certainly have an impact on those manufacturers eager to secure a five-star safety rating for cars sold in Europe, and could affect North American safety ratings in the future as well.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Good. I refuse to buy anything that doesn’t’ have physical buttons.

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  2. Sad when we need to codify that the signals and horn have physical controls and not a screen menu.

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  3. Hopefully the US will follow suit but I’m not holding my breath since NHTSA does nothing.

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    1. Well the regulators indeed do things (or at least propose them). And the automakers spend millions fighting it.

      A little sense would dictate certain things need physical controls. Wonder if the automakers actually talk to anyone who buys and uses their product, or if it really is just marketers chasing the latest fashions. The EV backfire at Ford pushes me to the latter…

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    2. This is great news. Switchs and knows for ever.

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    3. Yeah just like they still to this day haven’t mandated amber rear turn signals. Even after a study they performed proved amber turn signals are safer than red.

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    4. So what is it that NHTSA, in your opinion, hasn’t done? Be a problem solver, not a problem, like you are claiming NHTSA to be…..

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      1. One thing NHTSA has not done is update approved headlight standards like Europe did many years ago. Thus US cars do not have the latest in new headlight technology.

        Reply
  4. Good.
    Knobs are the most intuitive.
    And things shouldn’t be buried levels deep in menus. Or if they are, make those the least important things; and make them inop whenever the vehicle is moving.
    Plus, the most common things should not be controlled via the screen. Like headlights (I’m looking at you Colorado and Canyon).

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  5. What good does it do to check the thumbs up or down if whichever I choose automatically zeros out both? Trying to use that feature is useless in ,y opinion! Tomg

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    1. It zero’s out temporarily. If you refresh, it will again show the correct number of up and down thumbs.

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  6. I’m surprised the writer didn’t mention voice command as alternative. Some drivers prefer this.

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    1. “Turn on the wipers, please.”
      “Sorry, that song isn’t in your playlist. Shall I find it online?”
      “No. Turn on the wipers.”
      “I do not understand.”
      “Dammit I can’t see! Turn the ### wipers on!!”
      “Mapping location to nearest coffee shop. Directions are…”

      Thanks but I’d rather reach over and turn a switch.

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    2. I’m sorry but voice command is really not much better. It works ok in my Cadillac but in my Toyota, the system seems to get dumber and dumber the older the car gets and lands up being more frustrating than anything. More than once I feel like I am risking my safety getting frustrated because the stupid system doesn’t understand a basic call command.

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  7. Max
    How about putting an owners manual in the glove box you cheap skates. OR…. A Digital compregensive owners manual on the
    12.3 inch screen? Not excuse not to incluse an owners manual with a $60 plus thousande dollar vehicle. Oh, and lose the stupid starter killing auto shut off at a stoplight. That is the most ridiculous attachment in automotive history unless you need to sell more switches and startes and flexplates. Moronic addition to a vehicle.

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  8. If touch screens were so great you’d see all military and planes with them. If you lose one component (screen) you’d be flying or operating blind. Who wants a vehicle like that? Like going back 100+ years! When you crash or stop dead on the side of the road you know something went wrong. Lol!!! Give me good old guages and knobs any day!

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  9. You hit the one thing we do not like about our Tesla….screen control of everything. We will not purchase another vehicle configured this way. Switches and knobs are indeed less distracting thus safer.

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  10. Euro did not go far enough. How about HVAC and radio. If you really want to see a nice layout of both hard buttons and screens, look at a RAM truck with a 12″ screen. Ever try tapping a screen button on a bumpy road? It’s hard enough with real buttons.

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  11. I hate looking them menus in touch screens for lights or radio controls ect.
    This is the stupidest idea ever
    Wake up mfgs
    Although if your lights don’t work they get to charge you thousands of dollars to fix or replace the screen

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  12. It’s the nested menus that are the problem. When you have to tap 4 buttons on the screen to change one setting, then it’s poorly thought out. Developers think throwing everything into menus is efficient. Maybe for them it is, but not for the driver.

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  13. Agree, as some of us have been saying for a long time that touch screens promote distracted driving. I can adjust switches and knobs without looking,

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  14. This is one of the main reasons I got a 2023 GMC Acadia yesterday. I really like physical buttons and everything is slowly going software only and I am not a fan.

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  15. I’m not aware of any car that doesn’t already have buttons for 3 of the 5 things mentioned (horn, hazard and wipers). Surprised about the requirement for buttons for turn signals…I guess like a Ferrari or a Tesla. So, everyone else has to get rid of stalks within 2 years to make the scoring grade? Seems aggressive. And, they want the SOS call function to be a button? Much rather it be triggered automiatically in an accident, like they do today. I’m half dead and I need to find the button?

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  16. As it should be. And while I am not an advocate for government intervention (I am libertarian), unfortunately, sometimes its necessary when you have irresponsible manufacturers and hopefully this will lead to regulations mandating basic functions like starting the car, shifting into gear, and operating the headlights be required to be on physical buttons. It’s simply unfounded and unacceptable that a car is deemed undrivable just because a screen crashes as several Tesla owners have experienced.

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  17. It’s all about gm saving money on physical switches, there have been hundreds of comments on this site about owners not liking screen functionality that use to be a simple switch on the dashboard. Gm should probably listen to there customers. Or they will be loosing more.

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  18. This is a good first step. Now they need to give extra credit to the brands that use a slightly smaller screen with appropriate amount of physical controls. And this all needs to be done in the US as well.

    I work with Volvo’s and Mazda. I can’t tell you how many times you get into a Volvo and the stupid screen either fails to “load” or just spins for what seems like 2 minutes. When it’s blazing hot outside and the interior on the vehicle is baking, it’s really REALLY annoying when you can’t do anything with the climate control until the screen comes up. At least Mazda’s climate controls are 100% separate from the screen, but everything else is done using the controller/buttons on the center console. Mazda has and still does have issues with a black screen issue. When that happens, you can’t control anything within the screen.

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  19. I was caught in a heavy rainstorm while driving my Tesla. Expecting the wipers to initiate automatically I drove on but they didn’t initiate automatically. I fiddled a bit, but to figure things out, I had to pull to the side of the road to do solve problem safely. I found that the automatic function for the wipers had been turned off for who knows what reason. I had to dig through unfamiliar menus to solve that issue.

    Dangerous. I’m glad the road I was on allowed me to pull off easily, otherwise it would have been an “eyes off road” and “eyes on screen” issue to fix to fix when visibility was an issue to begin with.

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  20. Sad that GM and Mary Barra again chooses cost savings over safety.
    Many states have laws that you cannot operate your cell phone while driving. When are states or insurance companies going to demand manufacturers remove these endless displays and go back to buttons?

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  21. Pretty obvious. How are you supposed to operate climate/radio if the screen is defective?

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  22. A perfect example of how less safe the touchscreen controls are: my 2023 Lincoln Corsair with BlueCruise ADAS will alert me to pay attention to the road when I simply turn my seat heater from high to medium. Because the control is in the infotainment screen, it takes much longer for me to get it adjusted, while my eyes are not on the road! Very frustrating for a $67K vehicle.

    Reply

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