Nothing wrong with wooing tech enthusiasts, but when that comes at the expense of safety we can take a second look. These screens may contribute to more accidents and if research eventually shows this no one will want one.
I don't see how screens reduce cost since software has become an added cost, and tactile buttons have worked at low cost for decades.
> I don't see how screens reduce cost since software has become an added cost, and tactile buttons have worked at low cost for decades.
Half of the software is already done (those touchscreens don't get programmed from scratch, there's usually Windows or Android in them). You can outsource making it.
But most importantly, this decouples car's UI from the rest of the design work. With physical knobs, you have to design, place and route wiring for panels, which interferes with designing and placing and routing of everything else. You have to mind the BOM and manufacturing - maybe getting the kind of button your designer wants, in a kind of panel they want, is prohibitively expensive? Making any change in controls arrangement involves altering physical elements of the car, which may need coordination with other teams designing other parts of the interior.
Touchscreen gives you a nice separation from all of this. From the POV of designing the rest of the car, all you need is to fit a glass slab somewhere, and route wiring to that single place. Then, the UI people can do whatever they want. Change shape, arrangement and color of buttons 20 times a day. They can work on it while the physical desing of the car is already finalized. Hell, they can redesign the UI even after cars have already started to roll off the line. This kind of flexibility and decoupling saves money.
I don't see how screens reduce cost since software has become an added cost, and tactile buttons have worked at low cost for decades.