Volkswagen finally promises buttons for the most important functions

Vlad, 10 March 2025

Who knew touchscreens controlling everything in a car would be a horrible idea and lead to a lot of inattentive drivers? Oh, yeah, the entire car media and most owners of new cars. But not car makers, at least not for many, many years.

Now we're seeing somewhat of an awakening among them, and the latest to see the light is Volkswagen, which now promises that it will have physical controls "for the five most important functions" starting with the ID.2all and into the future after that, for every upcoming car.

So many buttons! So many buttons!

These five functions deemed "most important" by VW are volume, heating on each side, fans, and the hazard light. Are those the most important for everyone? Volkswagen (still) doesn't care, it knows what's important for you and you'll take it - just as it did back when it knew that the touchscreen should control everything, of course. But this time we have to believe them, right?

But wait, there's more! There will be physical controls on the steering wheel as well! Imagine that. The icing on the cake? This quote by Volkswagen design chief Andreas Mindt: "No guessing any more. There's feedback, it's real, and people love this. Honestly, it's a car. It's not a phone: it's a car".

So, for posterity, please let it be known that it was 2025 when VW's chief of design realized a car is not a phone. Such a shocking revelation, really, that no further comments are necessary. But we do have to wonder: are less inane car names next?

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Reader comments

  • Anonymous

Great. Now get rid of the screen sticking up above the dashboard in the driver's field of view. Put it lower down and allow the driver to turn the distracting thing off if they want to.

  • Anonymous

To be fair "finding the hazard lights" would be high on my list: if you want to turn those on you want to do it quickly and without hunting. But I change where the fans blow at least as much as the temperature, so don't want to menu di...

  • Full Bladder

So no defogger? At least they still offer stem controls for wipers I guess. Unless there is feedback that we don't need it anymore from imaginary consumers. Unnovation at it's best!

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