[RahulNagaraj]

According to a media report, the capacitive touch controls on the steering wheel of Volkswagen cars are being blamed for causing some crashes. As many as 13 crashes have been filed by Volkswagen owners with the NHTSA, many of them involving hitting objects while parking.



As per the report, all the crashes involve Volkswagen's ID.4 electric SUV - with its owners claiming the car's cruise control re-engaged leading to the crash. This is said to be because even a light brush against the control is enough to set it off. The ID.4 along with a few other models built by Volkswagen since 2019 come with haptic controls on the steering wheel, rather than physical buttons.

While most of the 13 crashes reported occurred at relatively low speeds, three of them resulted in occupants suffering injuries, while one didn't trigger any airbag deployment despite the EV suffering significant damage to its battery. The report states that Volkswagen is "aware of a small number of complaints", although NHTSA is yet to open a formal investigation.

Having said that, Volkswagen late last year announced that its future models would revert to physical buttons on the steering wheel. Volkswagen's CEO even went on to admit that haptic controls "did a lot of damage" to the brand.

Source: ArsTechnica

Link to Team-BHP news

[bijims]

In my opinion, all the essential controls related to driving a car on the steering wheel should have buttons and not capacitative or touchscreen controls, you surely won't accidentally press the button like how you accidentally brush past the touchscreen!

[d3mon]

Touch controls are almost universally hated. The audacity of some manufacturers including Mercedes and VW to put them on the steering wheel which you do, quite unfortunately, have to touch all the time in order to drive the car that you bought, is ridiculous.

To anyone who still thinks they are a great idea, I want to ask them why F1 cars haven't adopted this brilliant invention yet? Can we have some of that physical buttons and rotary knob "tech transfer" from F1 back to road cars please?

[Mgup564]

First dieselgate. Now this.

Executives at VW group seem to be imbeciles. Just don't seem to know of things which can cause "a lot of damage to the brand".

[JunkyardHunter]

I would have thought that after Dieselgate, VW would be quick to adopt EVs. Clearly not.

My shelf is full of TopGear mags, and every one from the UK harps on about how infuriating these touch controls are. Apparently, they're not even backlit at night?

I would like to pose a question to the men in the suits at VW. When you are driving down the highway at highway speeds, at night, when your concentration has to be at max, do you think people want to squint to try and make out the icons?!

First, I thought this was entertainment. Now it's gotten really serious.

[Ashwintona675]

I have never understood the logic behind touch control in the steering wheel and AC controls in the touchscreen. I haven't seen one positive comment on it. Do these companies even do research before introducing all these. Do they talk to customers about their preference. This is globally hated for sure.

[MT_Hyderabad]

At least they are acknowledging and proposing a change.

Forums are full of ADAS related accidents in India and no one cares. It is being used and promoted even more than before.

[_sh4nu_]

Touch controls are nothing but a cost cutting measure which unfortunately is being adopted as quite a norm these days.
Just look at tata's latest cars' interiors

Even the hazard light switch is touch based.

[asmr]

I would love to get my Taigun's touch AC controls changed to physical switch based ones. It is an absolute hassle, & a safety risk, operating the AC while driving alone (or even with a passenger who isn't familiar with the system). I wish VW India does this on their own as part of a service campaign.

[LionX]

Originally Posted by asmr

I would love to get my Taigun's touch AC controls changed to physical switch based ones.

.

Looks like VW already introduced it on Skoda Kodiaq and Superb - Smart Dials. Hopefully this will make it to all vehicles in VW stable.

https://youtu.be/Lb1Z-dKFz-w?si=DHnE7OzrWL106Fxd

[ZenMaster]

Originally Posted by JunkyardHunter

I would like to pose a question to the men in the suits at VW. When you are driving down the highway at highway speeds, at night, when your concentration has to be at max, do you think people want to squint to try and make out the icons?!

First, I thought this was entertainment. Now it's gotten really serious.

The problem with men in suits is that, they don't really know how products get conceptualized, engineered and made.
They are often isolated from the actual inputs that come into the engineering depts and they very much do not care about the opinions of their employees who are at the working level.

All they see are graphs, PowerPoint presentation and reports and they have to make a decision based on these metrics. These metrics are most often made by micro-managing self serving low-lifes (called middle management) to please their bosses and make them feel that an off-the-cuff idiotic idea that they mentioned in a meeting while half asleep is "Genius" and can save the company millions.

These people who "Save the company millions" then get promoted and the upper management get entirely cut of from the opinions and ideas of actual working level engineers and good managers (the kind who loves the product and cannot butter up the bosses)

That is how you get non-backlit, non-intuitive touch based controls for everything.

[Zinda]

It is a matter of common sense that muscle memory picks up the location and function of buttons, and after a few weeks you need not take your eyes off the road for ANYTHING! My Accord V6 has 60+ buttons/functions (counting 1 for vol up/down, not 2). So much so that there is a dedicated button for each of the 6 cd slots, I need not take my eyes off for anything be it HVAC, Media, Cruise and what not. Also, no issues when I switch to my other car, the Xuv500 which again has numerous buttons.


If VW (or any brand for that matter) thinks touchscreens improve the ergonomics, they are WRONG! A touchscreen is a deterrent in more than 1 ways
unnecessary draws attention at nights
need to swipe/navigate
muscle memory is impossible because there is no feedback

[charanreddy]

Touch controls for essential function on the steering wheel is the dumbest idea some one can come up with.

In my rental car, I have a touch function for audio volume control and it drives me nuts as i inadvertently touch it while turning the steering wheel. Unknowingly Re-engaging Cruise especially after coming off a fast section like a motorway can be deadly with very low reaction times.

[PrasunBannerjee]

So when companies started going full touchscreen based infotainment system, folks had this to their defense: "that's for the passenger to fiddle with, a driver always has steering mounted controls for muscle memories to kick in."

And now they broke that ground as well. I hope other manufacturers also follow suit and acknowledge the issue, and at least not provide hazard lights or AC controls via touch panels

[rkv_2401]

Originally Posted by Mgup564

Executives at VW group seem to be imbeciles. Just don't seem to know of things which can cause "a lot of damage to the brand".

You don't even have to be smart to understand why touch-activated cruise control on the steering wheel, in an EV with copious amounts of instant torque, is a bad idea!