Acura’s new 2025 ADX keeps dials and buttons alike
Posted on 10/01/2025 5:36:30 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
It seems that the world of technology—including the automotive industry—is undergoing a “re-buttoning” phase. While touchscreens remain a dominant feature in vehicle interiors, automakers are revisiting the value of physical controls as drivers rediscover their importance. Driving, after all, is one area where practicality and safety demand simplicity. But what’s driving this shift in design philosophy?”
Rachel Plotnick, an Associate Professor at Indiana University Bloomington and something of a “button guru,” has been studying this tactile resurgence for years. As the author of Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic, and the Politics of Pushing (2018), Plotnick has explored the psychology and cultural history of buttons and their enduring role in technology. Today, she’s helping companies refine their interfaces, balancing the digital with the tactile.
In an interview with IEEE Spectrum, Plotnick was asked about the factors driving the “re-buttoning of consumer devices,” a trend that is becoming increasingly apparent in car interiors. The expert responded:
“Maybe screen fatigue. We spend all our days and nights on these devices, scrolling or constantly flipping through pages and videos, and there’s something tiring about that. The button may be a way to almost de-technologize our everyday existence, to a certain extent. That’s not to say buttons don’t work with screens very nicely – they’re often partners. But in a way, it’s taking away the priority of vision as a sense, and recognizing that a screen isn’t always the best way to interact with something.”
In cars, this critique has teeth. Plotnick highlights that touchscreens can be unsafe in certain contexts, as they demand visual attention to operate—something drivers simply can’t spare. Physical controls, by contrast, offer the “simplicity of limiting our field of choices” and allow for intuitive operation without diverting focus from the road.
To their credit, many automakers are beginning to recognize the limitations of touchscreens—or, lets be honest, the pitfalls of cost-cutting measures that eliminated physical controls in favor of screens—all thanks to growing consumer backlash. Physical buttons, switches and knobs for essential functions, like climate control and volume adjustment, are making a gradual comeback.
Acura’s new 2025 ADX keeps dials and buttons alike
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The Subaru screens are ridiculous and obnoxious.
Why this is allowed I have no idea. It is very unsafe. The state of Michigan outlaws cellular device usage while driving yet here all the cars are made with devices built in. It’s insane.
I have a 2008 Lucerne with the 3.8.good car. They don’t make them like that anymore.
Thank goodness! My hubby’s truck has a screen that is bigger than my iPad, lol. I really dislike it and feel it is distracting,
“And of course the “smart touchscreen” is going to be useless in less then a decade as the company that makes them is now out of business and it no longer connects to anything.”
That’s very true, but it’s worse than that. An article a month ago said that the lifetime of electronics in cars is about ten years. Then they are no longer repairable.
My wife and I both drive 2014 cars. Mine’s a Ford Expedition (last year they had a big V8 engine) and she drives a Mercedes GLK, a small SUV. Since I upgraded to an iPhone 16 (from a 12), the Bluetooth connection to my Ford has gotten really wonky. I use Spotify for all my music and it randomly makes noise and drops out. The Ford dealer said that the “Diagnostic Fee” to deal with it is $150 and then there is probably a $300 charge to upgrade the firmware! And the “diagnostic fee” is no longer applicable to the repair charge.
I bought a $6 cable and now plug it into the USB port in the console. Problem solved. AND I get more info on the dash display about what is playing. The steering wheel controls still work, too.
I’m afraid we are in for a huge wave of older vehicles that are dead because the electronics are past their end-of-life.
My 2024 Tacoma is mostly buttons and knobs. Thank goodness!
NO touch screen
NO CVT
NO drive assist
My 2004 and 2007 Sonatas will outlive me if I have anything to say about it.
I replaced the inside door latch on the 07 recently for the cost of the part $25 and 15 minutes of my labor.
I replaced the outside door latch on my daughter’s 2006 Sonata for $20 and 10 minutes of my labor this week.
I have a 2017 Indian Scout. Bike wonks call its “dash” primitive. Beats the hell out of the big tourers. The controls and touch screens on them are scary. Incredibly distracting and insane over kill. On my Scout I can devote my attention to enjoyment of the ride.
“States that outlaw cellular device usage while driving”
It’s infuriating! I think it is FAR more dangerous to take your eyes off the road to fiddle with some built-in glass screen than to use a cell phone. Most of the time I say “Hey, Siri...call so-and-so” and it does it. Or when commercials start on a podcast, “Hey, Siri...skip ahead four minutes.” Or “Hey Siri, replay last track” for a song.
My 2021 Mustang has a touch screen, but many of the controls are also available as physical knobs, buttons, and sliders. I’m constantly adjusting the temperature when I drive. That’s possible with the touch screen, but I prefer to manually adjust the temperature control. It only takes a split second to confirm whether my fingers are on the fan speed control or not. It would take several seconds to find and adjust the fan control on the touch screen.
Maybe when you’re 5’11” it’s not a problem, but when you’re 5’7” it’s a PITA.
Or the wipers.
“Or the wipers.”
LOL...yep, many’s the time I’ve wiped the windows accidentally.
Road master was a beast.
The funny thing is, even though that was 20 years ago some of those functions worked better than anything similar does today. Especially the navigation system and the voice commands. That system was built by Alpine, and I still haven’t seen a built-in system (not counting things like CarPlay) that comes close today. I also have a 2021 Honda CR-V, and I never use voice commands on it, because it forces you to memorize exact syntax, and you have to work your way through menus, verbally, in stages. The 2005 TL, by comparison, lets you use variations on the expected commands, and speak relatively naturally. You don’t have to memorize every word to get it to work. It was way ahead of its time.
And that old TL also had a physical button for every function. So anything you wanted to do had more than one way to do it (touchscreen, voice commands, physical controls), letting you choose what worked best for you. The voice commands were fun at first, but aside from a couple that were better because they let you keep your eyes on the road, most were quickly ignored in favor of physical controls because the real buttons and knobs were just way faster. That car got some criticism in the press for its complex dash, filled with physical controls, but you didn’t need to use them if you didn’t want to. Everything had redundant options for controlling it.
The other thing that I love about that car is that after driving the 4-cylinder CR-V around (and it’s a great car for what it is), I get back in the old TL and am always surprised by how much more power it has. I really miss that VTEC V-6. About 220,000 miles and it still runs like new.
Air conditioner or rocket launcher?
All essential functions for an auto or truck should be knobs and buttons. Before I was grounded due to medical problems, I could reach each and every control and buttons and knobs of my 172 instinctively. You can not do that on a LED screen. The audio function really needs a touch screen but just don’t change functions while driving. I can change station and volume etc via controls on my steering wheel, never taking my eyes off the road. In short, the manufactures should eliminate any functions that are active while driving that take your eyes off the road. In my vehical I bought a Garmin GPS for navigation and mounted it on my dashboard. My truck has a great display and I could have subscribed for a navigation app. I did not as the position of the screen would take my eyes off the road.
I use my cell phone while driving even in school zones. It is all voice activated and I never take my eyes off the road. Under no circumstances would I use a cell phone that required me to take my eyes off the road.
Now here's a dash I could be happy with.
I used to have a ‘52 Chevy Bel-Air that had those things. Heading down the road it created a *nice* breeze inside the car!
Can we also get humans back to answer the phone and provide customer support?
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