Yes! Touchpads don’t work, so Volkswagen is bringing back physical buttons

Touchpads, those touch-sensitive surfaces, work well on their own, but not in a car, and certainly not on the steering wheel. Mercedes applies them to the steering wheel, including EQE and EQS, and that’s a disaster. Volkswagen is now acknowledging this and promising that physical buttons will return.

Volkswagen has listened to its customers, CEO Thomas Schäfer writes on LinkedIn, but we have also been saying it for several years: physical buttons are simply much better than a touchpad or a touchscreen for some purposes.

You cannot find touchpads by touch

Use the buttons on the steering wheel to operate the radio or the active cruise control, for example. They cannot be found on the Mercedes EQE by touch as they are flat touchpads. And that’s exactly the point of buttons on the steering wheel: you have to be able to find them blindly.

The tricky thing about touch-sensitive controls is that you first have to look carefully at what you’re pressing (you only feel a physical button) and second verify that your “touch” worked (a push button gives clear mechanical feedback). The haptic feedback is not perfect.

Volkswagen reintroduces the physical button

Volkswagen is taking its steps back and reintroducing the physical button. At least on the steering wheel. In his LinkedIn post, Schäfer does not talk about the terrible “sliders” for the air conditioning that cause so much irritation in the new Golf and ID.3 (they don’t even light up in the dark!).

Hopefully the reversal at Volkswagen is a sign that the rest of the industry is also reconsidering the use of touchpads and touchscreens. They look modern, but they are not always the best solution. For example, you only want buttons for the air conditioning and heated seats.