I just want to press the button, hear a click and the machine to run.
The touch screen or the "buttons that are not actually buttons" are also difficult for people who are disabled to deal with. Finding appliances that work for someone who is blind is not easy any more.
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.
“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 And the “diagnostic fee” is no longer applicable to the repair charge.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.