The monitors touch screen they are becoming increasingly popular not only on smartphones but also on low-end cars. Builders can like this reduce costs eliminating the physical buttons while offering better use of the multimedia system and control of the car's controls. Does not agreeEuro NCAP which has raised concerns about the excessive use of touchscreens, which could compromise the road safety. The organization intends to penalize models that rely too much on touch screens, highlighting the need to find a equilibrium between innovation and safety in automotive technologies.
Euro NCAP on the touchscreen
The new Euro NCAP rules, in force from January 2026, they will penalize vehicles without traditional/physical controls.
In fact, the European New Car Evaluation Program wants to downgrade tested cars that do not have physical buttons, pedals or knobs for crucial functions such as direction indicators, emergency lights, horn, windshield wipers and emergency call (eCall).
Dangerous touchscreens
Matthew Averydirector of strategic development at Euro NCAP, explained that the excessive use of touch screens increases the risk of road accidents due to driver distraction. The planned new tests will encourage the use of intuitive physical controlsreducing the time it takes to take your eyes off the road and promoting safer driving.
Although Euro NCAP cannot mandate the adoption of physical controls, the desire to achieve high safety ratings represents a strong incentive for car manufacturers.
Return to physical keys
The alarm about the growing presence of touchscreens in cars comes not only from Euro NCAP, but also fromAmerican Automobile Association and even the CEO of BMW, Oliver Zipse, which predicted a ban on touchscreens within 10 years due to the risks of distraction for drivers. Other car manufacturers are also reconsidering this trend, once again introducing physical buttons and more customization options.
Skoda, Toyota And Ineos are some examples in this sense. This suggests a possibility about face on the exclusive use of touchscreens. Builders could choose not to follow these new rules, but that would result lower safety ratings in evaluation tests.
What is the touchscreen
The touch screen is a type of technology that allows users to interact with a device by touching a monitor. It is widely used in devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, monitors and pointing devices such as touchpads and touch screens, but also widely used in cars.
Thanks to the touchscreen you can perform various actions on the car such as accessing the multimedia system, raising the volume, lowering it and making all adjustments. But also manage the air conditioning and much more. Touchscreen technology can be based on several principles, including resistive, capacitive, infrared, optical and ultrasonic, or a combination of these.
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