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Hyundai’s touchscreen honeymoon is over because sometimes buttons are just better

Maybe buttons are useful, after all?

“As we were adding integrated [infotainment] screens in our vehicles, we also tried putting touchscreen-based controls, and people didn’t prefer that,” Hyundai Design North America VP Ha Hak-soo told Korea JoongAng Daily in an interview that InsideEVs spotted. He said Hyundai, which was as infatuated with touchscreens as the rest of the industry at first, found that in focus group testing people got “stressed, annoyed and steamed when they want to control something in a pinch but are unable to do so.” Still, although Hyundai is prioritizing buttons now, HDNA head of interior design Kevin Kang told the outlet that self-driving cars could move the needle back towards non-button controls.

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