Today’s high-tech cars pose an increasingly distracting danger to motorists, road safety experts warn.
And it’s being fueled by manufacturers’ growing trend to ditch traditional push buttons, switches and dials on car dashboards and replace them with large computer tablet-style touchscreens.
Designers love it because it rids the dashboard of what they see as unnecessary ‘clutter’ to create a clean, minimalist look. Industry bean counters love it because it cuts costs by removing switches and wiring in favor of an iPad-style dashboard managed by downloadable software.
The trend, likely started by Elon Musk’s pioneering Tesla brand, is now accelerating rapidly among rival mainstream manufacturers who are all rushing towards fully electric cars.
If you haven’t encountered this problem yet, you may be in for a shock when it’s time for a newer model.
Distraction on the dashboard: It is said that the march of the touchscreen heralds danger
This issue is causing real debate – at a time when touching a portable mobile phone while driving will get you six penalty points on your driving license and a fine of €200 (and if you are fined within two years of passing your test you will receive your driver’s license).
Touch screens can undoubtedly be just as distracting, if not more so, than mobile phones, and the optional voice control is, from experience, far from perfect.
I still remember the frustration of using the finger-activated ‘sliders’ on the seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf. Billed as a major technical advancement, it drove many of us crazy at its official launch.
The updated 2024 Range Rover also no longer uses most buttons on the console, which provokes a lot of commentary and criticism on social media.
Similarly, Volvo, long a byword for car safety, has placed almost all the key functions of its otherwise brilliant new EX30 on a 12.3-inch display in the center of the dashboard.
Industry analyst John Griffiths said: ‘Touchscreens and their increasingly excessive and labyrinthine menus mean that the distraction of smartphones is minor in comparison.’
So concerned are leading motoring experts that the issue has been raised as a concern by trustees of the AA Charitable Trust for Road Safety. AA President Edmund King said, “There’s nothing wrong with having a touchscreen.
‘But it may not concern instructions that are essential for the driver – such as setting or adjusting the mirrors or activating the windshield wipers.
‘Such controls should be intuitive and not distracting. You shouldn’t have to go to an on-screen menu to find them.”
He added: ‘A driver can adjust the controls with a knob or dial at his fingertips without taking his eyes off the road ahead. It’s intuitive. This is not the case with a touchscreen. This is something we will look into further.”
And that’s why, in my experience, drivers really want traditional buttons on their dashboard – with buttons on them.
Trust your navigation system
On course: Navigation system, the modern equivalent of the AA Road Atlas, is now essential
This week, the TomTom navigation system on the Citroen C5
The first was on the way to a Mercedes-Benz event in Milton Keynes when a stalled M1 seriously delayed other competitors while I was sailing parallel on a free-flowing A-road.
And on my return I was deftly diverted from the M25 earlier than normal to take all kinds of unknown back roads to avoid problems further down the circuit.
Sometimes it’s an act of faith, just ‘letting go’ and trusting the navigation system to do its thing. The few times I doubted it, I got into trouble very quickly.
Just think of all the fuel and emissions the new route can save. So navigation is now essential. If that doesn’t work, there’s the trusty AA Road Atlas – which I also have with me.