Volkswagen copped its fair share of criticism when it introduced haptic ‘touch-sensing’ buttons at the turn of the decade, with fewer vehicles featuring physical controls for some functions despite growing criticism from potential customers and the media.
In recent years it has worked to backtrack on this and return to real buttons and other controls, while leaving some of the more high-tech interfaces for the growing list of Chinese rivals.
Speaking to Top Gear magazine, Volkswagen brand CEO Thomas Schäfer – who took control of the carmaker in mid-2022 – said the generation of executives before made decisions which were hard for him to undo.
“There was a spirit of iPhone-ish kind of design and utilisation that you could see coming through in many companies,” Schäfer said.
“It was a little bit difficult to get the designers off that idea.
“I said, ‘listen, there’s two things that are absolutely non-negotiable for me: door handles and buttons’. I don’t understand why anybody would have [touch-sensitive] sliders.”
The Volkswagen boss also said that “it was clear we were losing our core” when referring to the years before he took the top job.
“In the ‘old’ days we made a long list of requirements and features, but people didn’t feel comfortable using [the end product]. Now we think about people. Who is the car for? Who is driving it?”
His sentiments were shared by Kai Grünitz, the head of Volkswagen’s technical development team, who hinted at previous CEO Herbert Diess – an outspoken supporter of Elon Musk and Tesla – as being a driving force behind the brand’s most unpopular direction.
“I’ve worked for Volkswagen for roughly 30 years now,” Grünitz said.
“Every Volkswagen has been made for the board, and especially for the CEO. Luckily [Ferdinand] Piech and [Martin] Winterkorn had a feeling for what the customer wanted.
“Changing the CEO means that everyone follows the new one. And if he says, ‘hey, we need sliders…’ they argued a little bit, but they’d style [it].”
Volkswagen isn’t alone in backtracking from touch-sensing buttons in its cars, with Ferrari also moving back towards physical controls on steering wheels rather than haptic controls.
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