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DannyB [soylentnews.org] writes:

Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls [autocar.co.uk]
Japanese firm reckons new tech is "difficult to operate intuitively" for functions such as air conditioning, moving against growing industry norm

Honda has done what no other car maker is doing, and returned to analogue controls for some functions on the new Honda Jazz. [autocar.co.uk]

While most manufacturers are moving to touchscreen controls, identifying smartphone use as their inspiration - most recently seen in Audi’s latest A3 [autocar.co.uk] - Honda [autocar.co.uk] has decided to reintroduce heating and air conditioning controls via a dial rather than touchscreen, as in the previous-generation Jazz.

Jazz project leader Takeki Tanaka explained: “The reason is quite simple - we wanted to minimise driver disruption for operation, in particular, for the heater and air conditioning.

[ . . . . ] While Honda’s decision to return to physical controls will be popular with some - including, no doubt, its ageing owner base in the UK - the predicted move towards more voice-controlled actions in cars [autocar.co.uk] could eliminate the debate around touchscreens versus analogue controls in the future.

^<no-sarcasm>
It seems to me that neither physical controls nor voice controlled operation are fundamentally incompatible with cars being both smart and connected.
_{</no-sarcasm>}

Original Submission