Euro NCAP insists buttons remain for key features

PHYSICAL switches or ‘hard buttons’ as they are often known will be made mandatory for key vehicular features by 2026, as per new guidance from Europe’s automotive industry safety body, Euro NCAP.

To achieve points towards the highest safety rating possible (five stars), a vehicle will be required to have hard button access for the operation of its hazard lights, horn, indicators, warning lights, windscreen wipers, and SOS features.

Under the proposal, none of these features may be operated by in-screen access alone.

It is important to note that physical buttons will not be a mandatory pre-condition for a five-star rating – rather that they will be encouraged and contribute five points to a vehicle’s overall score.

“The overuse of touchscreens is an industry-wide problem, with almost every vehicle-maker moving key controls onto central touchscreens, obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road and raising the risk of distraction crashes,” said Euro NCAP director of strategic development Matthew Avery.

“New Euro NCAP tests due in 2026 will encourage manufacturers to use separate, physical controls for basic functions in an intuitive manner, limiting eyes-off-road time and therefore promoting safer driving.”

While some manufacturers fare better thank others in combatting distracted driving, the proliferation of in-car touchscreens is an issue many in the motoring world have been calling attention to for years.

In the time it takes to look at a screen, select the tab required – perhaps even opening a menu and selecting another tab or more – a vehicle is travelling without a set of eyes on the road ahead. Given a car travels 28 metres per seconds at 100km/h, the implications are as obvious as they are minacious.

Australia’s peak automotive industry safety body, ANCAP, agrees.

ANCAP says that in line with the next protocol step-change being introduced from 2026, it and EuroNCAP will work to discourage manufacturers from locating key vehicle controls within digital touchscreens.

It says physical, tactile buttons for the key control listed above will be encourage through scoring, and that this scoring will form part of the Safe Driving assessment pillar and will contribute five points to that pillar score.

“We know driver distraction is a growing factor in road crashes, so it is important that certain in-vehicle controls are easily accessible by the driver and don’t complicate the driving task or contribute to in-car distraction or inattention,” ANCAP chief executive Carla Hoorweg told GoAuto.

Interestingly, and while touchscreens and distraction may appear to be a contemporary issue, the understanding of touchscreen distraction dates to the 1980s, when US manufacturer Buick introduced the use of a system it dubbed the Graphic Control Centre (GCC).

Arriving in the 1986 Buick Riviera, GCC housed a host of important vehicle functions and displays, much like a modern infotainment array.

The cathode-ray tube screen measured just 4.0 inches and projected simple black and green graphics and boasted some 32,000 words of memory. It offered control for the vehicles climate settings, door locks, auxiliary gauges, trip computer, AM/FM radio, and audio settings – via a very 1980s graphic equaliser, of course.

Overwhelmingly, Buick customers said they did not like that they had to take their eyes off the road to use the Graphic Control Centre and in 1990, the manufacturer removed the system from its range.