Key dashboard touchscreen functions will soon be kicked into touch and physical switches will be required instead for car manufacturers to be granted the highest safety ratings.
Euro NCAP, the automotive safety industry body for Europe, is introducing new guidance for 2026 which means that five important tasks in every car will have to be performed by actual buttons instead of by accessing a screen.
Indicators, hazard warning lights, windscreen wipers, horn, and SOS features will have to be controlled by proper switches in order for cars to be granted Euro NCAP’s coveted 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,” explained Matthew Avery, director of strategic development at Euro NCAP.
“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.”
Several manufacturers have already come under fire for excessively complex touch screen controls forcing drivers to access menu after menu to adjust seats, mirrors and ventilation— we’re especially looking at you Tesla and VW.
Although it won’t be mandatory to comply with Euro NCAP’s new rules car makers that don’t will lose valuable points in their safety ratings. It sounds like a sensible idea, and a positive move in the battle against distracted driving.
Was just saying to a friend last night that the defrost front windshield should be easy to find and turn on. My car’s button is on the passenger side of the middle, and pressing it takes to you a screen where you select what you want to happen. Yes I read the manual, but it was months if not a year before I needed defrost. Then there are rental cars, where no one’s going to read the manual before driving off.
It’s not only essential controls, things like the radio and climate control are a huge distraction on a touch screen. I was recently loaned a latest shape Transit van and I had to sit outside the dealer’s gate for 5 minutes just to work out how to turn the radio on and get the screen de-misted!
We are told not to touch our phones whilst driving but the touch screen UI is way less intuitive than my iPhone right in front me on its holder….
the best selling car on the planet, has no buttons, only a big touch screen. so, maybe most buyers don’t actually care about buttons.
Perhaps using “voice commands” might help. Saying things like “defrost”, or “heat/cool to X temperature”, “radio on to X channel”, or say “mirror adjust” to bring the proper screen? The only problem I could forsee? Is if a driver cuts you off and you begin screaming “@#%xdfsffar I wish I could smash that idiot!!!” and your car takes that as your command to crash into that other’s car! LOL!
How many divers of screen controlled cars are no longer with us due to looking at their touch screens. How many have been maimed for life, or injured/killed others while looking at touch screens. I used to dive the old Volvo XC90, everything was analog. It was the alleged to be safest car in the world back then. I now drive the current XC90 T8 lovely to drive but a pain with its slow touch screen (current XC90 has moved backwards in world safety ratings). I often have to ask its voice command system 3 times to search for something which is in-itself distracting. Volvo also removed 2 manual (wheel) switches that used to be on the early T8’s one was for dash/ambient lighting which I used when driving at night from brightly lit cities into dark unlit country areas, the other was for changing drive modes which I would use when going from snow to wet to off road, all whilst driving. I now have to go to the touch screen and touch 3-4 times to do the same tasks. They even moved the digital clock from the dash cluster to the touch screen why! These are just a few of the opertions now involving looking away from the road. The latest EX90 & EX30 are completely screen controlled with bland slab dash panels. Much nicer to have a bit of leather and walnut to look at on a long drive (even if its fake) and analog controls that can be operated without ones eyes leaving the road. What we need is the best of old and the best of new ie head-up displays are brillient.
Bentley vehicles have a nice balance between old and new I’m sure similar can be applied to current vehicles, allbeit cheaper than Bentley!
Manufacturers have only removed knobs, switches and wiring looms to reduce cost. But at what cost to greiving relatives and friends.
Volvo take note, I shant be buying the EX90.