Hyundai cars are returning to physical buttons because America

You could call it the Tesla effect. I’m talking about an industry-wide shift to replacing traditional physical control functions, such as temperature selection, with virtual buttons on touch screens. Designers liked these new tech setups, but Hyundai found that American buyers didn’t.

The Korean automaker admits it was a mistake to go all-in on touchscreens, as many brands have done over the past decade.

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“When we added integrated (infotainment) screens in vehicles, we also tried touchscreen-based controls, but people didn’t like that,” HDNA Vice President Ha Hak-soo said. Korea JoongAng Ilbo.

“When we tested it with focus groups, we realized that when people want to control something in a pinch but can’t, they get stressed, irritated and angry,” Ha said.

Touchscreen technology allows the design team to create a clean, uncluttered cabin and provide drivers with more configurations of the car’s features than is possible using physical buttons alone. When you’re parking, using these touchscreens feels very natural.

But when the car rocks over a bumpy road surface and you take your eyes off the road for too long to find the digital switch because you can’t simply reach out and find it by feel, you know touchscreen technology isn’t without its problems. Frustratingly for many drivers, making simple changes to a feature now often requires more time and effort than when the feature was controlled via a simple dial or button.

Hyundai has known for some time how American drivers feel about touchscreen technology and is committed to retaining physical controls in its cars. The recently facelifted Ioniq 5 has benefited from this thinking.

Nonetheless, Hyundai’s North American design team suggests Korea JoongAng Ilbo As cars get more advanced driver assistance technology that makes them more relaxed, we may see a shift in customer attitudes toward touch screens.