Gridlock Guy: Buttons or screens? The tension in the modern vehicle

A retro movement spearheaded by Gen-Z has made ’90s clothing, dad rock, and cassettes en vogue, so to speak. Dashboards in automobiles are now also feeling the throwback pressure. After a decade of moves to make cars more futuristic and sleek with touchscreens, consumers and safety advocates are beginning to balk at the amount of car functions that are moving from tactile buttons to dashboard infotainment systems.

Elijah Nicholson-Messmer did an excellent and thorough write-up on the issue in Autoblog, noting that automakers are reconsidering their strategies. Autoblog reports that, starting in 2026, the European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) will not give five-star safety ratings to vehicles that do not have physical buttons for five functions: turn signals, hazard lights, emergency call system, windshield wipers, and the horn.

These may not seem like functions normally on a dashboard screen, but automakers, such as Tesla, Volkswagen, and Volvo have started moving more than just entertainment items to exclusively be on touchscreens.

Euro NCAP’s problem with the touchscreens is that they increase distractions - something that the screens were supposed to help diminish. The organization says that people have to take their eyes off the roads for longer than they should as they try to navigate a smooth screen. Feeling around for physical AC controls is far easier and requires less mental load than scrolling through several pages and trying to hit the exact spot on a screen.

The multi-page scrolling is a main issue here. Autoblog reports that Volvo’s EX-30 has mirror controls and the rear window-defroster buried in sub-menus on a screen. While mirror controls should be done while parked, the sudden need for a defogger is tough to satiate if a driver has to keep glancing down at multiple screens.

I am a major proponent of both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Those interfaces take basic phone functions and put them closer to eye level on the dashboard. While these are user-friendly and limit enough functions to keep scrolling at a minimum, they are not guiltless in being distracting.

And a car’s radio, for example, is in the car’s operating system on newer models. So if a driver wants to switch from streaming music or a podcast on their phone to listening to radio, they have to scroll or click multiple screens. That can cause 10 to 15 seconds of distraction, at a minimum.

Automakers started pushing these infotainment systems as smart phones started moving from buttons to screens. And the screens in vehicles really do a lot of good. By having in-car GPS systems or the far superior apps from Apple or Google on built-in dashboard screens, drivers do not need to mount separate GPS devices.

Having music from Spotify or Apple Music easily available on CarPlay or Android Auto falls in line with the move away from CDs that society has made as a whole.

But these infotainment systems need to be intuitive. And that is where the move to go completely to screens seems to fall apart. Placing defrosting or AC controls deep on menus is not good for drivers. Imagine renting a car and having to sit there for a long time trying to figure out how to find the mirror button, which is a common thing to adjust in a car that doesn’t belong to someone.

Or imagine having a breakdown on the road and not being able to find the hazard lights. Precious seconds of safety are lost.

Wipers and signals need to be easy to access. Fashion and taste should not completely trump safety and practicality, as advances in cars continue to push ahead.

Infotainment screens in dashboards can lessen distractions by making drivers less likely to hold their phones or other external devices. But too much reliance on or tedium within these screens can negate those gains. Just like is true with many things, using a dashboard touchscreen is great - in moderation.

Doug Turnbull has covered Atlanta traffic for over 20 years and written “Gridlock Guy” since 2017. Doug also co-hosts the “Five to Go Podcast,” a weekly deep dive on stories in motorsports. Contact him at fireballturnbull@gmail.com.