SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submission Preview
Touchscreen dashboards have finally taken over and ruined driving
Regarding how we interact with our cars, whether petrol or electric, victory has gone to the touchscreen – at least as far as one premium manufacturer is concerned. Despite overwhelming safety evidence to the contrary, BMW has decided that selecting in-car functions using its intuitive rotary controller will be for used-car buyers only.
On BMW’s next-generation Neue Klasse cars, beginning with the iX3 SUV launching this summer, drivers will have no choice but to use touchscreens. Its German rival Mercedes even offers a full-width dashboard consisting of three screens, called Hyperscreen (pictured above in the EQS, compared with the analogue, hewn-from-solid facia of the 1980s W123 Mercedes model).
They won’t be alone. An S&P Global Mobility survey of car owners found that 97 per cent of new cars released after 2023 contain at least one touchscreen.
