The Great Button Comeback: Volkswagen Latest to Ditch Touchscreen-Heavy Interiors

Published On: 20 December 2023
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The presage of Volkswagen’s plan to bring back physical controls at a time when automakers globally are constantly being criticised for having switched completely to touch screen panels.

Volkswagen brings out something which is uncommon in the market to stand out among other auto giants. One such similar thing that the automaker is currently focussing on is to instigate old-school button panels inside its new vehicles rather than imbibing touchscreen panels. The German carmaker as of now has made up full-proof plans to bring alive the physical buttons in its new cars as reported by a British automotive publication Autocar UK. The interior specs of the ID.2all concept are unveiled by Volkswagen along with a preview as to what the prospective customers can expect from the upcoming Volkswagen models.

Darium Watola, the interior designer of Volkswagen, supposedly said that the ID.2all perceives a brand-new approach for all the futuristic brand’s models that the German auto giant is riveting to bring back. Further, Watola also suggested that this movie to bring back physical buttons arose in the wake of the criticism about excessive-reliance on the touch control panels. To further justify it, the company is not the only carmaker who is thinking in this direction, as certain other key auto giant players are too switching their strategies in a similar fashion.

Intriguingly, as almost every carmaker globally is hugely concentrated on mitigating the standard physical buttons in favour of the touchscreen panels, customers have been putting forth complaints that rather than providing convenience, these touchscreen controls often turn out to be much more inconvenient and quite risky. This criticism has reportedly pushed Volkswagen to strategise in bringing back the standard physical buttons in its futuristic passenger cars.

To further emphasize on it, this move comes as a complete reversal from the planning the German carmaker made under the former CEO of Volkswagen, Herbert Diess. The firm conformed to follow in footsteps of Tesla Inc and centralise the majority of its controls to the touchscreen infotainment screen. The company also removed the conventional buttons from the steering wheels and switched them with the touch-sensitive capacitive buttons. This move purportedly frustrated the Volkswagen consumers. Thomas Schafer, Volkswagen’s present CEO, even commented that this move has actually done a lot of damage to the brand. Bearing this in mind, the move to bring back physical controls inside the cabin comes as a prominent shift from the carmaker’s previous strategy.