After more than a decade of chasing bigger and flashier in-car touchscreens, the auto industry is starting to rethink its design priorities. At the forefront of this reversal is Mercedes-Benz, which has announced plans to reintroduce physical buttons and rollers across its lineup.
At the Munich Motor Show, Mercedes’ chief software officer Magnus Östberg summed up the shift: “The data shows us physical buttons are better.” The company plans to begin implementation in 2026, with redesigned steering wheels featuring dials, rockers, and horizontal button clusters becoming standard. A spokesperson confirmed the decision was shaped by both customer feedback and usage data: “Physical controls offer superior usability and comfort for many drivers.”
The industry-wide love affair with touchscreens began in earnest after Tesla’s 2012 Model S popularized a 17-inch central display. Automakers embraced the screen-heavy approach throughout the 2010s, replacing physical parts with software to cut costs and market cars as futuristic. Yet, this trend often backfired. Tesla had to recall 158,000 vehicles in 2021 for failing displays, while usability tests revealed serious drawbacks. A 2022 study by Swedish magazine Vi Bilägare found that drivers in a button-heavy 2005 Volvo V70 could complete routine tasks in just 10 seconds, while touchscreen-reliant drivers took 23.5 to 44.9 seconds over twice as long.
Mercedes is not the only company to pivot. Volkswagen admitted its digital dashboards were frustrating and vowed in 2025 to bring back buttons: “Cars are not phones, so they require a different interface,” said design chief Andreas Mindt. Hyundai made a similar move with its Ioniq 5, reinstating hard controls after tests showed touch-only systems caused anxiety in urgent situations. Meanwhile, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan never abandoned physical controls altogether, favoring hybrid layouts. In China, Xiaomi has experimented with modular panels that snap onto touch-only dashboards, giving drivers optional knobs.
Regulators are also pushing the shift. Starting in 2026, Euro NCAP safety ratings will penalize vehicles without physical controls for essentials like climate settings, turn signals, and driver-assistance features, effectively pressuring automakers to reintroduce tactile interaction.
For Mercedes, the new steering wheel will anchor its redesign. Though critics caution that button-heavy wheels can be confusing, the company insists the design has been “extensively tested” to balance convenience and safety.
The timing is significant: Mercedes recently debuted its MBUX Hyperscreen, a massive 39.1-inch curved display spanning the dashboard of the GLC SUV. But even design chief Gorden Wagener admits there’s a limit to the trend: “We have reached a point where you cannot make the screen much bigger.”
Interestingly, Mercedes’ future will not rely on buttons alone. The company is also investing heavily in AI-driven voice control. According to Östberg, adoption is rising fast: “Usage of the feature in the CLA model has tripled. The increase is phenomenal.” Advocates believe that, with enough improvement, voice recognition could eventually render the button-versus-touchscreen debate irrelevant by enabling hands-free, natural-language commands.