Mazel Tov!

The European safety study group Euro NCAP will be deducting points from the safety scores from cars that lack physical buttons for their controls.

It's been clear that the whole, "Wake your eye off the road and search for an obscure menu option to turn on the heat," thing has been a human factors and safety disaster:

Some progress in the automotive industry is laudable. Cars are safer than ever and more efficient, too. But there are other changes we'd happily leave by the side of the road. That glossy "piano black" trim that's been overused the last few years, for starters. And the industry's overreliance on touchscreens for functions that used to be discrete controls. 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.

Now, Euro NCAP is not insisting on everything being its own button or switch. But the organization wants to see physical controls for turn signals, hazard lights, windshield wipers, the horn, and any SOS features, like the European Union's eCall feature.

Euro NCAP is analogous to the US IIHS, so the change in the ratings sstem it will likely have an impact on sales.

I do think that there should be government regulation of human factors in cars.

Driving a car is literally one of the hardest things that people do, and poor human factors in 3500 pound death machines makes it harder, and more dangerous.