| ▲ | citelao 2 hours ago |
| OP here: I always disliked touchscreens in cars, so I didn't understand why automakers kept shoving them in. I always assumed I was weird in some way, and that most consumers preferred touchscreens or something (Reddit seems to argue this in circles all the time). I planned to keep buying Mazdas, with their lovely buttons and stuff. But when Mazda unveiled their button-lite 2026 CX-5 about a year ago, I started investigating. I'm pretty convinced that touchscreens today are primarily a cost-saving measure, and every other justification is secondary. I hope I can convince you, too! |
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| ▲ | nicce 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| > I'm pretty convinced that touchscreens today are primarily a cost-saving measure, and every other justification is secondary. I hope I can convince you, too! I thought this is a pretty well-known thing already? For almost decade. |
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| ▲ | citelao an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | OP: Perhaps it is, but this article honestly took me 12 months to research & write. I really struggled to find trustworthy sources. Do you know of any others I should look at? Also, I rather like the idea that blogging can simply be stating the obvious: https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/blogging-stating-the-obvio.... Hopefully my argument is helpful to someone! | | |
| ▲ | nicce 18 minutes ago | parent [-] | | > Also, I rather like the idea that blogging can simply be stating the obvious I thought about this before posting my reply, that should I. But if you really spent time for researching this blog, you would know that your conclusion is not rare nor the first one. It is widely discussed and appears in HN regularly. But regardless, the tone in the post or here in comments felt to me that you try to somehow own this idea. Thought, you even cited the Ferrari CEO who said exactly the same. |
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| ▲ | dieselgate an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | I figured it was the most reasonable conclusion via Occam's Razor. Economical and the illusion of futurism |
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| ▲ | MisterTea an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > I'm pretty convinced that touchscreens today are primarily a cost-saving measure, and every other justification is secondary. I hope I can convince you, too! It amuses me that back in the 90's LCD color screens were magical fairy dust that cost about the same as what magical fairy dust would cost. Laptops with color LCD screens were like $6000 in the 90's, I think $3k over a greyscale. That's like $13k today. Whereas the little plastic buttons and knobs were cheaper to pump out of an injection molding machine and assembled. Now screens are cheaper to make than little plastic baubles. |
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| ▲ | pwg 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > so I didn't understand why automakers kept shoving them in. The article explained why. Since 2018 in the US, due to the proliferation of giant trucks being used as passenger vehicles (SUV's) backup cameras have been mandatory safety equipment. A backup camera requires a screen. So the automakers have to install a screen in the dashboard. It is only a few dollars more to install a "touch screen" vs. a "basic display screen", and with the addition of those few dollars to the screen, that touch screen can now replace hundreds of dollars of physical buttons and their necessary wiring. Net result, the BOM cost of the car drops by several hundred dollars, and the cost to assemble drops by some measurable amount as well. So they why is: "because they save the automakers BOM and assembly costs". |
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| ▲ | birdostrich 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | They're aware. You're replying to the OP of the article, lol. | | |
| ▲ | nkozyra an hour ago | parent [-] | | Obviously they read it, but it's 2026 and entirely possible to publish an article without having read a word of it :) All that said, I think initially it was a mix of a few things coming together. Yes, auto mfgs always want to reduce parts for cost and supply chain control. But there was also this moment of New Wow where the impractical nature of touchscreens was overshadowed by the holy crap I've got a tablet in my car. It implied a break with the last generation of cars, where you might have gotten a 4-inch screen (touch or not), and it became desirable at a surface level to users. Although I greatly dislike touchscreens for the obvious usability issues in a motor vehicle, I still kind of widen my eyes when I'm in a car with some new, ridiculous multi-screen dashboard setup. Mazda was mentioned in this thread, and I think they do a great job of separating the concerns here; you've got a big buttons of various sizes that do different things that can be memorized without sight. |
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| ▲ | gumby271 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I love the click-wheel on my Mazda3 and I love that it allows the screen to sit out of arms length up on the dashboard. Its a very nice interior. What I don't love is how Android Auto is slowly breaking since it assumes more and more that you have a touchscreen. It used to be that it would focus buttons in notifications, making it easy to interact with. Now the focus doesn't seem to change at all (or only sometimes) making it a nightmare to do simple things. I dare not use the new Gemini assistant since the last time I was completely unable to navigate to the buttons in its panel at all. I really hope they don't phase out the wheel just because Google sucks at supporting it. I know they have both touch and the wheel in newer models now. |
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| ▲ | aiisjustanif an hour ago | parent [-] | | I cried when Mercedes go rid of the click wheel. Research in this article be damned, I’d argue that rotary knobs with directional shifting like Mercedes paired with great software are the best car infotainment interface in recent history for screens in cars. | | |
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| ▲ | prmoustache 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The reality is they want to serve us ads in the future. But they first need adoption. |
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| ▲ | jasonjayr an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | (a) cars have forward-facing cameras/computer vision for lane tracking (b) infotainment systems have always-on cellular internet connections (c) billboard impression counts can be tied to the vehicle IIRC infotainment systems are already showing ads in some form. And location + driving performance is being captured + monetized and shared with insurance companies. Unless this results in an EV car that I can rent for less than $100/mo, this really needs to be stopped. | |
| ▲ | nkozyra an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > But they first need adoption. I think they've got that. Short of budget stuff or the Slate truck, most new cars have some big dumb screen in them at all times. But advertising poses a new problem for both advertisers and mfgs not unlike the mid-90s ad sale issue. There was no consolidated ad server, so everyone was trying to build their own agency and advertisers had to navigate that. Which probably means some sort of Google or Google-like player in the space. | |
| ▲ | scottyah 42 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | Stellantis tried it already, had to back-pedal calling it a "glitch". I'm sure someone else will be bold enough to try again though. |
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| ▲ | Gualdrapo 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I think that nowadays people value "technological features", and how better to show "technological advancement" like a giant ass touchscreen and not some "old" XX century knobs. |
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| ▲ | cuu508 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | I hope that changes and people start valuing simplicity and robustness over electric gimmicks (I know many people already do, but we need critical mass). |
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| ▲ | guessbest 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| It is so much easier to add internationalization to a touchscreen over physical buttons |
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| ▲ | ilinx 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | How much is that needed? There was very little text on those buttons to begin with. Are there significant cultural differences in the iconography associated with them? |
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