4 ms·

OP here: I always disliked touchscreens in cars, so I didn't understand why automakers kept shoving them in. I always assumed I was weird in some way, and that

by citelao 3mo ago

OP here: I always disliked touchscreens in cars, so I didn't understand why automakers kept shoving them in. I always assumed I was weird in some way, and that most consumers preferred touchscreens or something (Reddit seems to argue this in circles all the time). I planned to keep buying Mazdas, with their lovely buttons and stuff. But when Mazda unveiled their button-lite 2026 CX-5 about a year ago, I started investigating. I'm pretty convinced that touchscreens today are primarily a cost-saving measure, and every other justification is secondary. I hope I can convince you, too!

pwg 3mo ago
> so I didn't understand why automakers kept shoving them in. The article explained why. Since 2018 in the US, due to the proliferation of giant trucks being used as passenger vehicles (SUV's) backup cameras have been mandatory safety equipment. A backup camera requires a screen. So the automakers have to install a screen in the dashboard. It is only a few dollars more to install a "touch screen" vs. a "basic display screen", and with the addition of those few dollars to the screen, that touch screen can now replace hundreds of dollars of physical buttons and their necessary wiring. Net result, the BOM cost of the car drops by several hundred dollars, and the cost to assemble drops by some measurable amount as well. So they why is: "because they save the automakers BOM and assembly costs".
- birdostrich 3mo ago
  They're aware. You're replying to the OP of the article, lol.
  - nkozyra 3mo ago
    Obviously they read it, but it's 2026 and entirely possible to publish an article without having read a word of it :) All that said, I think initially it was a mix of a few things coming together. Yes, auto mfgs always want to reduce parts for cost and supply chain control. But there was also this moment of New Wow where the impractical nature of touchscreens was overshadowed by the holy crap I've got a tablet in my car. It implied a break with the last generation of cars, where you might have gotten a 4-inch screen (touch or not), and it became desirable at a surface level to users. Although I greatly dislike touchscreens for the obvious usability issues in a motor vehicle, I still kind of widen my eyes when I'm in a car with some new, ridiculous multi-screen dashboard setup. Mazda was mentioned in this thread, and I think they do a great job of separating the concerns here; you've got a big buttons of various sizes that do different things that can be memorized without sight.
- jjav 3mo ago
  > So the automakers have to install a screen in the dashboard. Perfect example of reasonably good intention backfiring. So now you have a backup camera, which is useful, but you also have drivers fiddling around with a touchscreen while driving, taking eyes and concentration off the road. I don't have research numbers, but it feels like the latter causes way more accidents than the backup camera prevents. My partner has one of these newer cars where everything is a multi-menu operation through the touchscreen and it is very scary. Anything you need to change takes many many seconds of visual attention focusing on the touchscreen, which means not focusing at the road. I'm quite sure this will lead to an accident at some point. Personally none of my cars have a screen and none ever will. I can adjust everything that can be adjusted purely by feel without ever taking my eyes off the road. Clearly that is safer.
  - soco 3mo ago
    > Personally none of my cars have a screen and none ever will. I can adjust everything that can be adjusted purely by feel without ever taking my eyes off the road. Clearly that is safer. You can also have the best of both worlds. I'm not pretending it's an ideal car, but my Audi has plenty of knobs and buttons and switches for about anything I usually need. You only are forced to use the screen for switching between radio and bluetooth music (maybe there's a button for that too and I don't know it), for setting up the navigation and of course the zillion of car settings. So do I have a screen? Yes. Do I depend on it? Really no. So folks, there IS a way, we just have to push for it.
nicce 3mo ago
> I'm pretty convinced that touchscreens today are primarily a cost-saving measure, and every other justification is secondary. I hope I can convince you, too! I thought this is a pretty well-known thing already? For almost decade.
- dieselgate 3mo ago
  I figured it was the most reasonable conclusion via Occam's Razor. Economical and the illusion of futurism
- citelao 3mo ago
  OP: Perhaps it is, but this article honestly took me 12 months to research & write. I really struggled to find trustworthy sources. Do you know of any others I should look at? Also, I rather like the idea that blogging can simply be stating the obvious: https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/blogging-stating-the-obvious/ https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/blogging-stating-the-obvio.... Hopefully my argument is helpful to someone!
  - nicce 3mo ago
    > Also, I rather like the idea that blogging can simply be stating the obvious I thought about this before posting my reply, that should I. But if you really spent time for researching this blog, you would know that your conclusion is not rare nor the first one. It is widely discussed and appears in HN regularly. But regardless, the tone in the post or here in comments felt to me that you try to somehow own this idea. Thought, you even cited the Ferrari CEO who said exactly the same.
Gualdrapo 3mo ago
I think that nowadays people value "technological features", and how better to show "technological advancement" like a giant ass touchscreen and not some "old" XX century knobs.
- cuu508 3mo ago
  I hope that changes and people start valuing simplicity and robustness over electric gimmicks (I know many people already do, but we need critical mass).
guessbest 3mo ago
It is so much easier to add internationalization to a touchscreen over physical buttons
- ilinx 3mo ago
  How much is that needed? There was very little text on those buttons to begin with. Are there significant cultural differences in the iconography associated with them?
prmoustache 3mo ago
The reality is they want to serve us ads in the future. But they first need adoption.
- nkozyra 3mo ago
  > But they first need adoption. I think they've got that. Short of budget stuff or the Slate truck, most new cars have some big dumb screen in them at all times. But advertising poses a new problem for both advertisers and mfgs not unlike the mid-90s ad sale issue. There was no consolidated ad server, so everyone was trying to build their own agency and advertisers had to navigate that. Which probably means some sort of Google or Google-like player in the space.
- jasonjayr 3mo ago
  (a) cars have forward-facing cameras/computer vision for lane tracking (b) infotainment systems have always-on cellular internet connections (c) billboard impression counts can be tied to the vehicle IIRC infotainment systems are already showing ads in some form. And location + driving performance is being captured + monetized and shared with insurance companies. Unless this results in an EV car that I can rent for less than $100/mo, this really needs to be stopped.
- scottyah 3mo ago
  Stellantis tried it already, had to back-pedal calling it a "glitch". I'm sure someone else will be bold enough to try again though.
MisterTea 3mo ago
> I'm pretty convinced that touchscreens today are primarily a cost-saving measure, and every other justification is secondary. I hope I can convince you, too! It amuses me that back in the 90's LCD color screens were magical fairy dust that cost about the same as what magical fairy dust would cost. Laptops with color LCD screens were like $6000 in the 90's, I think $3k over a greyscale. That's like $13k today. Whereas the little plastic buttons and knobs were cheaper to pump out of an injection molding machine and assembled. Now screens are cheaper to make than little plastic baubles.
- elcritch 3mo ago
  Yeah it's sorta of fascinating. Likewise now cells phones are faster than supercomputers from two decades ago and everyone can afford one. Meanwhile hardwood furniture is much more expensive now that it's usually in the "rich peoples" category. From what I've read, the little plastic baubles part of buttons are cheap, it's the electrical wiring harnesses and assembly that are expensive part of physical controls.
- bryanlarsen 3mo ago
  Injection molding is still quite cheap. I think it's the tooling and labor and wiring and parts management et cetera that makes the cost add up for fiddly little bits.
gumby271 3mo ago
I love the click-wheel on my Mazda3 and I love that it allows the screen to sit out of arms length up on the dashboard. Its a very nice interior. What I don't love is how Android Auto is slowly breaking since it assumes more and more that you have a touchscreen. It used to be that it would focus buttons in notifications, making it easy to interact with. Now the focus doesn't seem to change at all (or only sometimes) making it a nightmare to do simple things. I dare not use the new Gemini assistant since the last time I was completely unable to navigate to the buttons in its panel at all. I really hope they don't phase out the wheel just because Google sucks at supporting it. I know they have both touch and the wheel in newer models now.
- aiisjustanif 3mo ago
  I cried when Mercedes go rid of the click wheel. Research in this article be damned, I’d argue that rotary knobs with directional shifting like Mercedes paired with great software are the best car infotainment interface in recent history for screens in cars.
  - scottyah 3mo ago
    I love voice control, have you tried/gotten used to that?
  - vardump 3mo ago
    Curiously Teslas currently have two click wheels in the steering wheel.
OptionOfT 3mo ago
They are. All BMWs have the same screen. It's one 1 screen, regardless of whether your car has heated seats, ventilated seats, sync, arm-rest warmers, separate blowers or a single blower. Within 1 production line, say for the BMW 3 series, some people don't select heated seats, some do. Now they only need to make 1 version of the plastic, and it's just a checkbox in the software to enable the heated seats.

by citelao 3mo ago

pwg 3mo ago

> so I didn't understand why automakers kept shoving them in. The article explained why. Since 2018 in the US, due to the proliferation of giant trucks being used as passenger vehicles (SUV's) backup cameras have been mandatory safety equipment. A backup camera requires a screen. So the automakers have to install a screen in the dashboard. It is only a few dollars more to install a "touch screen" vs. a "basic display screen", and with the addition of those few dollars to the screen, that touch screen can now replace hundreds of dollars of physical buttons and their necessary wiring. Net result, the BOM cost of the car drops by several hundred dollars, and the cost to assemble drops by some measurable amount as well. So they why is: "because they save the automakers BOM and assembly costs".

birdostrich 3mo ago
They're aware. You're replying to the OP of the article, lol.
- nkozyra 3mo ago
  Obviously they read it, but it's 2026 and entirely possible to publish an article without having read a word of it :) All that said, I think initially it was a mix of a few things coming together. Yes, auto mfgs always want to reduce parts for cost and supply chain control. But there was also this moment of New Wow where the impractical nature of touchscreens was overshadowed by the holy crap I've got a tablet in my car. It implied a break with the last generation of cars, where you might have gotten a 4-inch screen (touch or not), and it became desirable at a surface level to users. Although I greatly dislike touchscreens for the obvious usability issues in a motor vehicle, I still kind of widen my eyes when I'm in a car with some new, ridiculous multi-screen dashboard setup. Mazda was mentioned in this thread, and I think they do a great job of separating the concerns here; you've got a big buttons of various sizes that do different things that can be memorized without sight.
jjav 3mo ago
> So the automakers have to install a screen in the dashboard. Perfect example of reasonably good intention backfiring. So now you have a backup camera, which is useful, but you also have drivers fiddling around with a touchscreen while driving, taking eyes and concentration off the road. I don't have research numbers, but it feels like the latter causes way more accidents than the backup camera prevents. My partner has one of these newer cars where everything is a multi-menu operation through the touchscreen and it is very scary. Anything you need to change takes many many seconds of visual attention focusing on the touchscreen, which means not focusing at the road. I'm quite sure this will lead to an accident at some point. Personally none of my cars have a screen and none ever will. I can adjust everything that can be adjusted purely by feel without ever taking my eyes off the road. Clearly that is safer.
- soco 3mo ago
  > Personally none of my cars have a screen and none ever will. I can adjust everything that can be adjusted purely by feel without ever taking my eyes off the road. Clearly that is safer. You can also have the best of both worlds. I'm not pretending it's an ideal car, but my Audi has plenty of knobs and buttons and switches for about anything I usually need. You only are forced to use the screen for switching between radio and bluetooth music (maybe there's a button for that too and I don't know it), for setting up the navigation and of course the zillion of car settings. So do I have a screen? Yes. Do I depend on it? Really no. So folks, there IS a way, we just have to push for it.

nicce 3mo ago

> I'm pretty convinced that touchscreens today are primarily a cost-saving measure, and every other justification is secondary. I hope I can convince you, too! I thought this is a pretty well-known thing already? For almost decade.

dieselgate 3mo ago
I figured it was the most reasonable conclusion via Occam's Razor. Economical and the illusion of futurism
citelao 3mo ago
OP: Perhaps it is, but this article honestly took me 12 months to research & write. I really struggled to find trustworthy sources. Do you know of any others I should look at? Also, I rather like the idea that blogging can simply be stating the obvious: https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/blogging-stating-the-obvious/ https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/blogging-stating-the-obvio.... Hopefully my argument is helpful to someone!
- nicce 3mo ago
  > Also, I rather like the idea that blogging can simply be stating the obvious I thought about this before posting my reply, that should I. But if you really spent time for researching this blog, you would know that your conclusion is not rare nor the first one. It is widely discussed and appears in HN regularly. But regardless, the tone in the post or here in comments felt to me that you try to somehow own this idea. Thought, you even cited the Ferrari CEO who said exactly the same.

Gualdrapo 3mo ago

I think that nowadays people value "technological features", and how better to show "technological advancement" like a giant ass touchscreen and not some "old" XX century knobs.

cuu508 3mo ago
I hope that changes and people start valuing simplicity and robustness over electric gimmicks (I know many people already do, but we need critical mass).

guessbest 3mo ago

It is so much easier to add internationalization to a touchscreen over physical buttons

ilinx 3mo ago
How much is that needed? There was very little text on those buttons to begin with. Are there significant cultural differences in the iconography associated with them?

prmoustache 3mo ago

The reality is they want to serve us ads in the future. But they first need adoption.

nkozyra 3mo ago
> But they first need adoption. I think they've got that. Short of budget stuff or the Slate truck, most new cars have some big dumb screen in them at all times. But advertising poses a new problem for both advertisers and mfgs not unlike the mid-90s ad sale issue. There was no consolidated ad server, so everyone was trying to build their own agency and advertisers had to navigate that. Which probably means some sort of Google or Google-like player in the space.
jasonjayr 3mo ago
(a) cars have forward-facing cameras/computer vision for lane tracking (b) infotainment systems have always-on cellular internet connections (c) billboard impression counts can be tied to the vehicle IIRC infotainment systems are already showing ads in some form. And location + driving performance is being captured + monetized and shared with insurance companies. Unless this results in an EV car that I can rent for less than $100/mo, this really needs to be stopped.
scottyah 3mo ago
Stellantis tried it already, had to back-pedal calling it a "glitch". I'm sure someone else will be bold enough to try again though.

MisterTea 3mo ago

> I'm pretty convinced that touchscreens today are primarily a cost-saving measure, and every other justification is secondary. I hope I can convince you, too! It amuses me that back in the 90's LCD color screens were magical fairy dust that cost about the same as what magical fairy dust would cost. Laptops with color LCD screens were like $6000 in the 90's, I think $3k over a greyscale. That's like $13k today. Whereas the little plastic buttons and knobs were cheaper to pump out of an injection molding machine and assembled. Now screens are cheaper to make than little plastic baubles.

elcritch 3mo ago
Yeah it's sorta of fascinating. Likewise now cells phones are faster than supercomputers from two decades ago and everyone can afford one. Meanwhile hardwood furniture is much more expensive now that it's usually in the "rich peoples" category. From what I've read, the little plastic baubles part of buttons are cheap, it's the electrical wiring harnesses and assembly that are expensive part of physical controls.
bryanlarsen 3mo ago
Injection molding is still quite cheap. I think it's the tooling and labor and wiring and parts management et cetera that makes the cost add up for fiddly little bits.

gumby271 3mo ago

I love the click-wheel on my Mazda3 and I love that it allows the screen to sit out of arms length up on the dashboard. Its a very nice interior. What I don't love is how Android Auto is slowly breaking since it assumes more and more that you have a touchscreen. It used to be that it would focus buttons in notifications, making it easy to interact with. Now the focus doesn't seem to change at all (or only sometimes) making it a nightmare to do simple things. I dare not use the new Gemini assistant since the last time I was completely unable to navigate to the buttons in its panel at all. I really hope they don't phase out the wheel just because Google sucks at supporting it. I know they have both touch and the wheel in newer models now.

aiisjustanif 3mo ago
I cried when Mercedes go rid of the click wheel. Research in this article be damned, I’d argue that rotary knobs with directional shifting like Mercedes paired with great software are the best car infotainment interface in recent history for screens in cars.
- scottyah 3mo ago
  I love voice control, have you tried/gotten used to that?
- vardump 3mo ago
  Curiously Teslas currently have two click wheels in the steering wheel.

OptionOfT 3mo ago

They are. All BMWs have the same screen. It's one 1 screen, regardless of whether your car has heated seats, ventilated seats, sync, arm-rest warmers, separate blowers or a single blower. Within 1 production line, say for the BMW 3 series, some people don't select heated seats, some do. Now they only need to make 1 version of the plastic, and it's just a checkbox in the software to enable the heated seats.