Volkswagen has a problem. After committing a large amount of its financial resources to spearhead a product portfolio shift to EVs, Volkswagen finds itself in a bit of a No-Man’s Land of changing political priorities, lukewarm consumer and journalist receptions, and a growing mountain of financial woes. Volkswagen as we knew it is gone, but the Volkswagen of today might not be around much longer either.
In a bid to turn things around, the company announced that they are reversing their decision to adopt touch controls for most secondary controls. While this may seem like a common sense move, Volkswagen’s decision to revert back to physical knobs and buttons flies in the face of significant investment made over the past few years in not only their own in-house infotainment software CARIAD but in rival EV automaker Rivian as well. Why the change and why now?
The gamble of electrification of crossovers and SUVs might still be awaiting a final verdict, but the automotive consumer jury has ruled against the proliferation of screens replacing the tried-and-true ways of the past. What can work for a manufacturer like Tesla or Rivian doesn’t translate to a world where the physical press of a button is replaced with a hard to find touch target and a maddenly slow response. As more and more consumers vote with their wallets and make loud their voices, Volkswagen seems to remember that they build cars and not phones.
Design chief Andreas Mindt said in an interview with Autocar that, “From the ID 2all onwards, we will have physical buttons for the five most important functions – the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans and the hazard light – below the screen”. So we’re not getting all of our beloved buttons and knobs back, but the fact that Volkswagen is owning up to a mistake and willing to concede it was wrong might just be a herald of better days to come.
As a Volkswagen owner clinging to a Mk7 GLI with an actual honest-to-goodness volume button on my steering wheel, I’m glad that someone in Wolfsburg is paying attention. All Volkswagen needs to do now, in a turn of phrase from a company that does build phones, is have the “courage” to build a gas-powered ID Buzz.
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