The touchscreen problem: why car brands need to bring back simple physical buttons
Step inside almost any new car showroom in India today, and you might feel like you have walked into a TV shop. From small family hatchbacks to big, expensive SUVs, the dashboard is completely taken over by large, glowing screens. Car makers are proudly talking about their 10-inch, 12-inch, and even massive dual screens.
But as we look at these giant tablets glued to our cars, a very real and very annoying problem is growing. We are losing our simple buttons, easy knobs, and basic dials.
If you have ever found yourself searching online for things like “touchscreen car problems,” “why are car screens so distracting,” or “touchscreen vs physical buttons safety in India,” you already know the pain. It is time to talk about why the car industry’s love for big screens has gone a bit too far. Bringing back basic, old-school physical controls is not just about making driving easier—it is about keeping our families safe on the road.
1. The Premium Look vs. Saving Money
How did we get to this point? For the last few years, car brands have told us that a clean dashboard with a massive screen means the car is “futuristic” and “premium.” They wanted us to feel like our cars were as smart as our new phones.
However, the real reason behind this change is actually quite simple: it saves the car companies a lot of money. Think about it. Designing and making physical buttons, turning dials, and high-quality switches costs a lot. It requires careful wiring behind the dashboard, different plastic parts, and lots of testing to make sure the buttons do not break after a few years. On the other hand, buying a basic glass touch display and putting every single car control—from the air conditioning to the rearview mirror settings—into a software menu is much cheaper.
They sold us a money-saving shortcut and called it a luxury upgrade. And since we Indian buyers naturally love cars packed with the latest features, we happily accepted it. Today, many popular cars on our roads are moving toward these flat, buttonless designs, making us rely entirely on a screen.
2. The Danger in Unpredictable Indian Traffic
Let us picture a very normal driving day in India.
You are driving at a decent speed on a busy city flyover or a highway. Suddenly, the sky opens up, and it starts raining heavily, or a large truck in front of you kicks up a massive cloud of dirty water. You need to turn on your windshield wipers and your AC defogger immediately so you can see the road.
- In an older car with buttons: Your hand naturally reaches out. Because you drive the car every day, your body remembers exactly where the controls are. You feel a switch and twist a round knob. Click, click. The wipers are on, the glass clears up, and your eyes never stop looking at the road ahead.
- In a modern, screen-only car: You have to take your eyes off the road and look down at the big screen. You tap the “Settings” icon. You miss the button because your car just hit a small pothole. You look down again, find the “Climate” menu, and then try to drag your finger on a digital slider to turn on the window clearer.
In those 4 to 5 seconds of looking at a glass screen, your car has traveled a very long distance, and you were driving completely blind.
A physical button gives you a feeling you can trust. You can feel its shape with your fingers, and you hear a clear click when you press it. A flat glass screen gives you zero feeling. You have to look at it to know if your finger touched the right spot. In our busy Indian traffic—where stray cows, fast two-wheelers, and sudden stops can happen in a split second—taking your eyes off the road just to change the AC cooling is a very big risk.
3. Safety Rules Are Finally Changing for the Better
Thankfully, the world is starting to notice this problem. If you search for the “new car safety rules for physical buttons 2026,” you will see that international car safety groups have finally had enough of this dangerous trend.
Starting very soon in 2026, the European safety testing group (Euro NCAP)—which is the gold standard for checking how safe a car is—will start lowering the safety scores of car makers who hide basic controls inside touchscreens.
To get a full 5-star safety rating, cars must have simple, physical buttons or switches for the following important things:
- Turn indicators (indicators for left and right)
- Hazard warning lights (the big red triangle)
- Windshield wipers
- Horn
- Emergency call features
Even in countries that love huge screens, governments are making new rules that say cars must have normal buttons for basic driving needs. Safety experts globally are agreeing on one clear fact: a car might have six airbags and a strong body, but it is not a safe car if the driver crashes because they were looking at a screen to turn on the wiper.
4. Even Phone Designers Prefer Buttons in Cars
One of the most interesting points against car touchscreens comes from the tech world itself. Jony Ive is a very famous designer who helped create the Apple iPhone and the iPad. He is one of the main reasons we all use touchscreens today.
Recently, he worked on designing the inside of a new electric car, and he chose not to use massive screens everywhere. In interviews, he has clearly said that touchscreens are simply the wrong choice for the main controls in a car.
His thinking makes total sense. A smartphone is made to be a blank glass slate that can become a camera, a map, or a game while you are sitting safely on your sofa. But a car is a heavy, fast-moving machine. The controls needed to drive this machine must be fixed in one place, totally reliable, and easy to use just by feeling them. When the person who made the smartphone popular says your car should not work like a smartphone, the car brands really need to listen.
5. The “Must-Have” Buttons Every Car Still Needs
To be fair, we do not need to throw screens away completely. A good, clear screen is wonderful for following Google Maps navigation, using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, looking at your reversing camera while parking, and choosing your favorite songs while you are stopped at a red light. We do not want to go back to the 1990s.
What we really need is balance. Here is a simple list of things that should always be physical buttons or knobs in every single car:
- The Volume Knob: This is the king of all car controls. Swiping your finger on a glass screen ten times just to turn down the music because you are looking for a specific shop address is very annoying. A round knob is quick and perfect.
- AC and Climate Controls: We need simple turning knobs for the temperature and the fan speed. Nobody wants to search through a computer menu to stop cold air from blowing directly into their face during a night drive.
- Hazard Lights: In an emergency, or if traffic stops suddenly on a fast highway, you need a big, physical red button right in the middle of the dashboard that you can hit quickly without even thinking.
- Outside Mirror Settings: Trying to adjust your outside mirrors using a touchscreen menu is a headache. A simple little joystick switch on the driver’s door is so much better and faster.
A Simple Rule for Car Makers: If a driver needs to use a feature while the car is moving, it should be a real button. If it is only used when the car is parked or going slow, it can live inside the screen.
Let’s Bring the “Click” Back to Our Cars
The trend of slapping a huge television onto the dashboard and calling it a “luxury feature” really needs to stop. Cars are made for driving, not for watching movies or playing on tablets. As buyers, we need to stop getting amazed just by the size of the music system screen. We need to start checking if the car is actually comfortable and safe to use daily.
Thankfully, with safety rules changing around 2026, things are slowly getting better. Some major car brands have already understood their mistake and promised to bring back physical buttons in their new models. Let us hope more car makers in India do the same, so we can go back to enjoying the drive with our eyes on the road.