Carmakers are equipping their latest models with fancy touchscreens, but that could cause problems with Europe’s largest car safety authority.
The European New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) is revamping its rating system starting Jan. 1, 2026 to mandate that five of a car’s primary controls — its horn, windshield wipers, turn signals, hazard warning lights and SOS features — will need physical buttons or switches.
Car models will have to comply to get NCAP’s coveted five-star rating. The scheme is voluntary but is heeded by most automakers because it’s closely monitored by consumers.
Belgium-based NCAP says that purely digital controls are a potential safety issue.
i haven’t driven in a while but i can’t remember really needing to control my keys that much. usually they stay put pretty well once they’re in the ignition
So when are they gonna wake up and finally do something about these automatic dimming headlights? They blind me regularly.
On a curvy street its impossible to not get blinded, no matter if the car is following me, or driving opposite way.
Who allowed that shit while clearly not testing it.
Yes! I fucking love buttons and dials! And maybe Android Auto can just heckin’ let me use my phone keyboard when I’m stopped.
Yours doesn’t?
If Android Auto is active, it blocks me from opening Google Maps on my phone and I have to mess with the touchscreen interface a bunch before it offers to let me use my phone’s keyboard while stopped. It would be less annoying if the voice search option and the search interface on the car’s touchscreen was less bad.
Touch controls in a car is definitely up there among the absolute dumbest ideas of the century.
Belgium-based NCAP says that purely digital controls are a potential safety issue. “What we now see is we have more and more … crashes where people are having collisions because they’re being distracted,” said Matthew Avery, NCAP’s director of strategic development. That matters because fatal car accidents are on the rise in the EU. More than 20,000 people died on the roads in 2022, a 4 percent increase over 2021. The bloc wants to halve the number of road deaths by 2030, with the goal of zero fatalities by 2050. Moreover, if the displays don’t have tactile feedback, drivers can be distracted by having to poke at the screen — unsure if the controls are registering. “The problem with touchscreens is that there is inherently a lag in them, and more importantly, there is no haptic feedback,” car interiors become increasingly high-tech, the different systems are starting to diverge. Gone are the days of getting into a car and immediately knowing where all the controls are; nowadays drivers have to adjust to each new car. the illumination from the screen diminishes the ability to see down dark road[s] because pupils normally adjust when [cars] have more light inside and [the] instrument panel and touchscreen causes an additional amount of light in the car, therefore diminishing nighttime vision," Carmakers like Tesla which rely heavily on new tech will have to decide if NCAP’s five-star rating is worth reversing its interior design
Side note: touch screen are a gimmick not a new technology. the scale you have at the mall has a touch screen and has had one since the 90’s. These touch screens are used in specific locations and settings to manage complex ui, with a lower maintenance cost and the chance to keep a device running for longer with a simple os update. Most touchscreen are, believe it or not, still resistive, as they have a strong feedback and they work across most temperature ranges. Most touchscreens are added to static tools like lab tools or workstations like lifts, scales, and so on. At no point they added resistive touchscreen in cars when the tech was new. Wanna know why? Touchscreens suck. Than the Iphone came and brought us here. Now we think that touchscreens are futuristic and fancy. Not, they aren’t. Star wars and even Star trek had all physical control with full sets of buttons for the management of the ship. If a starship that you always liked had physical buttons why shouldn’t your car have that design?
This requirements should apply too AT THE VERY LEAST to air conditioning. I hate new models that require you to interact with a screen to turn it on, or to operate the infotainment volume.
I don’t understand the touch screens in cars, I would expect them to be more expensive than physical buttons. Are there that many people who think it’s fancy that it’s a selling feature?
Think of it this way. Cars already need an LCD panel for infotainment these days. New cars that lack them get passed over. At the very least, people want CarPlay and Android Auto for maps and music.
Secondly, physical switches and gauges haven’t been dumb analog or electric circuits for years. They all communicate with the car’s onboard computers.
So, if the car already needs a touch screen, and all the garages and switches are digital behind the front end anyway, it’s going to be cheaper to make the gauges out of software than plastic.
And with display panels getting cheaper and cheaper, you can slap a bigger panel in the car, and still save money on manufacturing.
I’m happy with a Bluetooth connection to the stereo. I have maps on my phone.
Fuck carplay/android auto in the ear.
I hate getting a rental car and I just want my music, but it tries to hijack and download my whole phone.
I want to get in, connect my phone and go. Not 20 minutes wrestling it for control.
Digital displays are fine. It’s just a display. But controls should be manual (buttons, dials, etc) that can be operated with eyes on road.
Download your phone?
You wouldn’t download a phone
My understanding was the screen itself is the expensive part. In the US, it’s required for a backup cam. At that point it’s cheaper and easier to assemble, just having everything on the network and doing software. Physical controls take more build time
Nice to see EU policy finally flourishing now that they’re no longer getting nerfed by the UK’s membership.
This is the truth. The EU is much more efficient without the UK.
What made the UK such a hindrance for the EU?
They had a veto and they also had the Tories
Modern England is a blight apon civilization, though half joking aside. As I understand it the UKs conservative bullshit maid it so they functioned like Kentucky here in the US, basically drawing shit out till it died. Which is makes sense when you consider that England without London is about as wealthy as Mississippi.
Cgp Grey had a good video on the problems with the UK voting system.
I prefer the idea that the Anglo-Saxon brain is just naturally suited to licking boots and becomes angry when others don’t
Car models will have to comply to get NCAP’s coveted five-star rating. The scheme is voluntary but is heeded by most automakers because it’s closely monitored by consumers.
Bollocks. F*ck this shit. Make it mandatory and take those ticking time bombs of the road. They are endangering OTHER people’s lives. Voluntary my ass.
This is faster than passing a law. Do this first then work on legislation in parallel.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Can’t wait to get enough money to buy a car before 2005
Why 2005?
Probably the get last time touchscreens weren’t in cars
Got very happy seeing the title, but we’re just talking about the bare minimum lime horns and windshield wipers. A tiny step in the right direction, but not much else
Wow, have any car manufacturers actually tried changing these functions to touch buttons? I know Tesla got rid of the stalks, but my understanding was they still had physical buttons on the wheel to replace them.
Can we just use the European safety regulations for American cars? I’m tired of watching them get all the safety stuff a decade ahead of us.
I expect you will. I think It will be cheaper to have a single spec globally for a given model of car.
I’m afraid they won’t. When I was a Student I had a summer job at Mercedes assembling cars. At the time cars sent to the US needed bigger airbags - you’d think it’d be less error prone at negligible extra cost to just equip all cars with the bigger airbags but they didn’t.
Of they can save a couple of cents by having less buttons they’ll have less buttons.
Of they can save a couple of cents by having less buttons they’ll have less buttons.
Are buttons actually more expensive than a touch screen?
You’ll have a touch screen either way and it’s possible that the functions of the buttons are available on some app too.
Just as basically all cars except current Teslas do.
I think the EU would be doing Tesla a favor if they force them to add physical controls to switch between D, R, N, P.
Edit: The current Tesla Model 3 should comply with the new rule (not 100% sure about hazard lights).
to mandate that five of a car’s primary controls — its horn, windshield wipers, turn signals, hazard warning lights and SOS features — will need physical buttons or switches.
Good, but would be great if climate control, volume/mute, and other things that need frequent adjustment while driving were also part of the mandate.
and opening the fucking doors
Is this some tesla thing or what?
Not just Tesla, bunch of manufacturers are doing this shit now.
Drive controls too, no swipe for reverse bullshit.
Car seat adjustment, above seat vehicle interior lights, steering wheel adjustment, door handles, door locks, main rear view mirror, climate controls for vents and seats, car starting, and trunk and seat releases should all have controls that can be operated either directly or with physical buttons.
If there is ALSO a screen driven element, that’s fine, but this stuff needs to work without a screen.
This stuff is not being done for the sake of UX. It is for saving money at the expense of consumer safety.
I can see the case for some of them after you’ve been in a crash (although if the pyro fuse has blown, not much requiring switches will work anymore, regardless of the type of controls), but if you want physical controls for the rear view mirror for safety, you should probably start adjusting that before you start driving.
Same for cabin lights, whatever you’re doing that needs the lights on should probably be done stationary, if you care about safety.
This stuff is not being done for the sake of UX. It is for saving money at the expense of consumer safety.
This. Everyone, keep your eye on the ball.
Using your phone while driving is illegal, so we made all the controls on the same technology.
Genius. About time it’s banned.
My favorite is the warning to not look at the screen, which you have to acknowledge to get it to go away.
