[nhkvarma]

There was a time when I refused to buy Honda Jazz because of their weird touch screen panel for AC controls. The showroom dealer told me that was indeed a selling point for the car top end variant.

Now Tata is having all its product lines with touch panels which has even terrible things like the tiny hazard button that disappears along with other buttons.

This regulation should also come to India immediately.

[vamsi.vadrevu]

Why do manufacturers forget that a very important factor in safety while driving is muscle memory!

If the frequently used buttons are not tactile and don't give feedback, we're forced to look at it and retry. This happens even for the most well designed capacitive buttons or touch screens.

On the other hand, a physical clicky button becomes muscle memory with just a few uses. It no longer requires active attention to engage and disengage.

This is ergonomics 101. Many Indian manufacturers have got the ergonomics wrong. This trend toward capacitive panels is extremely concerning.

[V.Narayan]

What a sad reflection on the awareness and common sense of our major car designers that a simple matter like this - tactile controls - has been increasingly ignored in the last several years. Several members of our august forum, including me, have raised this on various threads in the past. If we as ordinary car users could sense the danger and impracticality of touch screens for controls, it boggles the mind to wonder how much the marketing gizmo gang at OEMs swamped the engineering good sense in their design offices.*

Thank you NCAP for being the voice of sanity in a world obsessed by screens.

Suggestion to NCAP - The ability to drive a car and handle all driving and air con & music related controls should be possible to perform in a darkened cabin without taking the eyes off the road.

Let's get back to the past to progress forward.

*When marketing or sales dominates engineering & design then we get the Boeing 737 MAX.

[Hume]

https://www.motor1.com/news/711128/e...-more-buttons/

Reading the above article gave me such relief. Seeing more and more car makers remove perfectly ergonomic button controls and replacing them with a slab of glass (where you have to further fiddle around in menus and sub-menus) in the guise of minimalism and modernity, I had quite often nervously wondered as to how far this cost-cutting exercise going to go? Fortunately, the well renowned independent crash test body Euro NCAP thinks that this indeed is a concerning trend.

The European New Car Assessment Programme intends to downgrade the safety ratings of newly tested cars that don't have buttons, stalks, or dials for the following functions: turn signals, hazard lights, horn, windscreen wipers, and emergency call.

Such a welcome move and I can't wait for it to take steam.

[DriverLess]

https://jalopnik.com/a-tesla-touchsc...ort-1851327161

Tragedy caused possibly by Tesla's screen based gear shifter. I can somehow look past touch turn indicators or wipers. But gear selector, hazard light, parking etc has to be physical button for me.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by DriverLess

https://jalopnik.com/a-tesla-touchsc...ort-1851327161

Tragedy caused possibly by Tesla's screen based gear shifter. I can somehow look past touch turn indicators or wipers. But gear selector, hazard light, parking etc has to be physical button for me.

Well keeping aside the drivel jalopnik normally publishes, the car in question is a 2020 Model X per the article which had a column shifter not the touchscreen shifter.

[DriverLess]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Well keeping aside the drivel jalopnik normally publishes, the car in question is a 2020 Model X per the article which had a column shifter not the touchscreen shifter.

Thank you.

WSJ article https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/ange...afety-c435daa0 (requires subscription) is very detailed and does not attribute anything to touch screen gear shifter. Some news channels seem to have added that as clickbait.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by DriverLess

Thank you.

WSJ article https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/ange...afety-c435daa0 (requires subscription) is very detailed and does not attribute anything to touch screen gear shifter. Some news channels seem to have added that as clickbait.

Well thats the reality of most news media these days. It is the reason why I dont take anything at face value and do my own research.

[anjan_c2007]

A report appearing of TechDad a FB forum as below:-

The European voluntary car safety evaluator, New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), advocates for car manufacturers to reintroduce physical controls for turn signals, hazard lights, windshield wipers, the horn, and SOS features. Failure to comply with this requirement will result in points deductions beginning in 2026.

Euro NCAP warns against the use of touchscreens instead of physical or touch switches, citing security risks as drivers are compelled to navigate menus while their attention is diverted from driving.

In its latest guidance for 2026, Euro NCAP outlines criteria for a car to attain a five-star safety rating, stipulating that indicators, hazard warning lights, windscreen wipers, the horn, and SOS features must be operable via dedicated switches.

Vehicles in Europe utilize the eCall system, which automatically initiates a free 112 emergency call in the event of a serious road accident and can also be activated manually by pressing a button.

Matthew Avery, director of strategic development at Euro NCAP, expressed concern over the widespread reliance on touchscreens in vehicles, noting that this trend forces drivers to divert their gaze from the road, increasing the risk of distraction-related accidents.

He emphasized that forthcoming Euro NCAP tests in 2026 will incentivize manufacturers to implement separate, physical controls for essential functions, promoting safer driving by reducing instances of eyes-off-road time.
#NCAP #Cars #Safety

Thats a return back to yesteryears technology for the better, from the overreliance that today's carmakers have bestowed on touchscreens. Many from the newer generations are also hooked to these touchscreen controls.

[sarathlal]

Car makers in Europe are being encouraged to stop using touchscreens for basic functions like turn signals and wipers in an attempt to promote safer driving. Euro NCAP is set to introduce new rules in January 2026 that require the vehicles it assesses to have physical controls to receive a full five-star safety rating.

The overuse of touchscreens is an industry-wide problem, with almost every vehicle-maker moving key controls onto central touchscreens, obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road and raising the risk of distraction crashes

said Matthew Avery, director of strategic development at Euro NCAP, to the Times.

To be eligible for the maximum safety rating after the new testing guidelines go into effect, cars will need to use buttons, dials, or stalks for hazard warning lights, indicators, windscreen wipers, SOS calls, and the horn.

The Euro NCAP’s safety guidelines aren’t a legal requirement, however, car makers take safety ratings pretty seriously, so any risk of points being docked during such assessments is likely to be taken into consideration.

Source: The Verge

[TorquePull]

Horn, Hazard lights, Wipers and indicators already have stalks/buttons in most vehicles right? They should add AC controls, Music controls to the list, which requires frequent adjustments while driving.

[ron178]

Euro NCAP has completed the first trials of the 'Bring Back Buttons' protocol:



Source

[volkman10]

Distracting and unsafe, cars will need buttons not just touchscreens to earn 5-star Euro NCAP in 2026.

“The overuse of touchscreens is an industry-wide problem, with almost every vehicle-maker moving key controls onto central touchscreens, obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road and raising the risk of distraction crashes,” Matthew Avery, director of strategic development at Euro NCAP told UK’s The Sunday Times.

He continued, “New Euro NCAP tests due in 2026 will encourage manufacturers to use separate, physical controls for basic functions in an intuitive manner, limiting eyes-off-road time and therefore promoting safer driving.”

Link: