Why Are Modern Car Touchscreens So Dumb and Dangerous?

TL;DR

Modern cars have replaced physical buttons, knobs, and levers with touchscreens and gimmicky controls that are slower, harder to use, and sometimes less safe. The 1986 Buick Riviera pioneered the car touchscreen but was pulled after three years for being fiddly and distracting; the 2012 Tesla Model S revived the trend industry-wide.

Transcript

This is the Buick Riviera, the world's first car with a touchscreen. Made back in 1986, the futuristic graphic control center replaced more than 80 physical controls. The graphics were so advanced, the fan icon spun at different speeds depending on the climate control setting. You could turn the sound system up or down and adjust the balance or gra... Read More

Key Insights

• The 1986 Buick Riviera was the world's first car with a touchscreen, replacing more than 80 physical controls, but Car and Driver panned it as a 'bad joke' and the touchscreen was removed three years later after production numbers plummeted.
• The 2012 Tesla Model S revived the car touchscreen and built its entire interior around a 17-inch screen roughly as large as four to six typical car screens, kickstarting an industry-wide craze for minimalist digital designs.
• Touchscreens spread partly because they are cheaper and more efficient to manufacture than physical controls, and because a 2018 US rule requiring rear-facing cameras meant every new car needed a screen inside.
• Regenerative braking that cannot be reduced or turned off became dangerous for one driver descending steep, icy mountain roads, forcing him to hunt through menus mid-snowstorm to find a feature that had been removed.
• New door handles like those on the Range Rover Velar, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Tesla Cybertruck are hidden, button-operated, or camouflaged, making them hard to find and troublesome in winter.
• Gear shifters have become wildly inconsistent, from the Mercedes GLC monostable stalk to GMC Terrain pull-buttons to the VW ID.4 twist knob, prompting Car and Driver to ask why new gear selectors are 'so stupid.'
• The Genesis Crystal Sphere shifter is so confusing that Genesis produced a nearly four-minute video explaining how to use it, illustrating how each new car now must be learned almost from scratch.
• Manufacturers have begun treating cars like software, with BMW in 2022 charging UK customers £15 a month to use heated seats before dropping the idea in late 2023 due to low customer interest.

Questions & Answers

Q: What was the first car with a touchscreen?

The 1986 Buick Riviera was the world's first car with a touchscreen. Its futuristic graphic control center replaced more than 80 physical controls, letting drivers adjust climate, sound balance, the graphic equalizer, trip data, and electronic gauges. The graphics were advanced enough that the fan icon spun at different speeds depending on the climate setting. However, it was widely seen as too far ahead of its time.

Q: Why did Buick remove the touchscreen from the Riviera?

The Riviera's touchscreen was fiddly, distracting, and much slower than the physical controls it replaced. The influential Car and Driver magazine gave it a brutal review, saying the graphic control center meant to turn a trip to 7-Eleven into a space odyssey was actually a bad joke. Customers weren't buying it, production numbers plummeted, and three years later, in 1989, the touchscreen was removed.

Q: How did the Tesla Model S change car design?

Released in 2012, the Tesla Model S was praised by Car and Driver for its range, acceleration, and top speed, and was designed almost entirely around a huge 17-inch touchscreen, about as big as four to six of the screens typically found in cars then. It jump-started a craze for minimalist, digital-oriented designs and a Silicon Valley software-first approach, forcing the rest of the industry to play catch-up.

Q: Why did touchscreens spread across the car industry?

Several reasons drove the spread of touchscreens. The Tesla Model S made minimalist digital designs a sensation, and touchscreens are also cheaper and more efficient to manufacture than physical controls. Additionally, as of 2018 all new cars sold in the US were required to have a rear-facing camera so drivers could detect pedestrians behind the vehicle, which meant new cars had to include a screen inside, a change some experts link directly to the rise of touchscreens.

Q: Why can removing physical controls make cars less dangerous to use?

Some features become genuinely dangerous when moved off physical controls. One driver described going down steep, icy mountain roads with the car trying to regeneratively brake every time he lifted off the throttle, but the option to reduce it had been removed. He had to hunt through menus while driving in a snowstorm behind a transport truck, a scary situation. There's evidence some of these cars aren't just harder to use but less safe.

Q: What is wrong with modern car door handles?

Many modern cars have unusual door handles that are hard to find and fiddly to use, and all but useless in cold weather. The 2017 Range Rover Velar requires pressing a little button so the handle pops out, which is tricky in winter and may need explaining to passengers. The Ford Mustang Mach-E got rid of handles entirely, using a camouflaged button, and the Tesla Cybertruck's button is even better hidden.

Q: What is the Genesis Crystal Sphere and why is it confusing?

The Genesis Crystal Sphere is a shifter in cars like the Genesis EV60 that Genesis says helps create an emotional connection between driver and vehicle. Starting the car rotates the crystal ball to reveal a shift dial, with a mood light and vibration. The process for shifting, including neutral, is so convoluted that Genesis created a nearly four-minute video to explain how to use it, showing how each new car must be relearned from scratch.

Q: Did any carmaker charge a subscription for built-in features?

Yes. As modern cars became more tech-based, some manufacturers explored treating them like software by selling upgrades or subscriptions. In 2022, BMW announced certain features would be available only by subscription. To use the heated seats, for example, British customers had to pay £15 a month. By late 2023, BMW had dropped the idea due to low customer interest, showing buyers resisted paying recurring fees for hardware already in the car.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The Buick Riviera introduced the car touchscreen in 1986, replacing over 80 physical controls with a graphic control center whose fan icon spun at different speeds. Reviewers called it fiddly, distracting, and slower than physical controls, sales dropped, and the touchscreen was removed after three years.

• The 2012 Tesla Model S, designed around a huge 17-inch touchscreen, revived the trend and pushed the whole industry toward minimalist, software-first designs. Touchscreens were also cheaper to build, and a 2018 US backup-camera requirement meant every new car needed a screen.

• Beyond screens, cars gained hidden door handles, bizarre shifters, and the Genesis Crystal Sphere, forcing drivers to relearn controls each time. Some features are not just harder to use but less safe, and manufacturers even experimented with subscription-locked features like BMW's heated seats.