VW's head of design announced this months ago, and spun it as listening to customer feedback, choosing to return to features people "love". I remember at the ti

VW's head of design announced this months ago, and spun it as listening to customer feedback, choosing to return to features people "love". I remember at the time being a bit annoyed by the level of spin. In reality, for Europe at least, their hand was forced by Euro NCAP via their safety tests. They announced it a couple of years ago but it starts now. No car that has just a touchscreen, instead of physical controls, will be awarded a 5-star rating. I don't really know to what extent people take note of the NCAP ratings these days, but they certainly used to be a very big deal to car buyers (for example, in the late 90s, the rating given to the Rover 100 effectively killed it overnight). The NCAP ratings make physical controls essential for the most basic functions (e.g. indicators) and strongly encouraged for others (e.g. climate control). So obviously the same goes for other manufacturers shouting about doing the same thing - don't swallow their hype about how much they love your feedback.