European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls

This is the best summary I could come up with:

That glossy "piano black" trim that's been overused the last few years, for starters.

Well, the automotive safety organization European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) feels the same way about that last one, and it says the controls ought to change in 2026.

"The overuse of touchscreens is an industry-wide problem, with almost every vehicle-maker moving key controls onto central touchscreens, obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road and raising the risk of distraction crashes," said Matthew Avery, Euro NCAP's director of strategic development.

"New Euro NCAP tests due in 2026 will encourage manufacturers to use separate, physical controls for basic functions in an intuitive manner, limiting eyes-off-road time and therefore promoting safer driving," he said.

Tesla is probably at greatest risk here, having recently ditched physical stalks that instead move the turn signal functions to haptic buttons on the steering wheel.

Euro NCAP is not a government regulator, so it has no power to mandate carmakers use physical controls for those functions.

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One thing I liked when I used a Mini rental car for the week was the airplane-like physical up/down switches for things. Had a very satisfying click to it too.

I have a 2021 Seat Leon, it has almost no physical controls outside of the steering wheel, most of the controls outside the steering wheel are touch buttons that are terribly placed, all of the other controls are put into the infotainment system.

It is absolutely insane.