Technology

I’m fine with some touch controls, but volume, temperature, and gear shifter should never be touch only. All 3 are frequent operations in a vehicle and require too much visual focus when you’re trying to drive. It’s unsafe to take your eyes off the road for this to check the precision of your change. The advantage of physical buttons is that you can adjust them without looking. Also, for volume especially, you frequently want to go from zero/very low volume to higher volume and vice versa. A lot of touch controls are tap-based. Changing volume by tapping is tedious. Tap and hold is worse because you’ll likely overshoot your mark and stress out yourself and your passengers by blasting the volume. Temperature has similar issues, but not as bad because the range of adjustments required aren’t as drastic. Nonetheless, I change the temp often enough, that I don’t want to look.

And, don’t get me started on going between drive and reverse with a touch screen while trying to execute a 3-point turn. People with Teslas always try to defend this with me and, I’m sorry, but no. Changing drive modes should require a physical shifter by law, for safety.