Apologies for this header being a little misleading, to be factually correct it should read ‘VW – Some Knobs are back’ and I’m referring to physical control knobs, not humans ….
Without dwelling on my age, I often feel when I’m driving in the country and for whatever reason the radio signal drops out and I’m unable to use Spotify, how nice it would be to have a ‘cassette player’ or heaven forbid an ‘8-track cartridge player’ in the car. Or even if the suns in the wrong place and you can’t read the screen to change radio stations, how good would a push button radio be, where without taking your eyes off the road you could just poke at the radio and generally get the station you needed.
So, recently I was thrilled to read the following article where Volkswagen design chief Andreas Mindt told Autocar:
“From the [ID.2 and onward], we will have physical buttons for the five most important functions — the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans and the hazard light — below the screen, they will be in every car that we make from now on. We understood this.”
“We will never, ever make this mistake anymore. On the steering wheel, we will have physical buttons. No guessing anymore. There’s feedback, it’s real, and people love this. Honestly, it’s a car. It’s not a phone: it’s a car.”
Now I know we won’t be going back to the cassette player, but it will be nice to be able to hop in a modern car and not have to ask a 12 year old child how to turn the music up or make the car cooler…..
VW Has Learned An Important Lesson About Buttons And Knobs – thetruthaboutcars.com