this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
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Electric Vehicles

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China is bringing buttons back to cars, ending trend led by Tesla (electrek.co)
submitted 1 day ago by schizoidman@lemmy.zip to c/electricvehicles@slrpnk.net
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The regulation calls out 19 vehicle functions which must have physical controls inside the vehicle, with additional requirements about size and usability of the buttons.

Those functions include:

Turn signals
Hazard lights
Horn
PRND gear shifter
Driver assist function, if present
Windshield wipers
Windshield defroster
Power windows
Emergency call system
Power off switch for EVs
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[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 80 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

I went into this thinking it was a little bit silly since nobody would design a car without most of those but:

If you have a Model Y from 2025 or later, press the brake pedal to pull up the drive mode strip on the touchscreen. Tap the drive mode strip to shift into Park. You can also press Park on the overhead console.

You have to shift gears with a touchscreen?? WHAT??!? I knew they were shit cars but what the actual fuck are they thinking?

[–] 79WistfulVista@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Musk's goal is to eliminate all human input - including the steering wheel. He has said “Almost all input is error. Car should do the right thing automatically.” Removing physical controls is the first step.

This is probably a mistake. But Musk is unlikely to ever admit this.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

yes and no ;) i mean you can just get in and assuming you are not reversing, press the "accelerator" and go, get out at the other and walk away. No need to lock, engage park brake, change "gears" etc

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 5 points 22 hours ago

When mobile dev tech bros develop a car.

[–] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 11 points 1 day ago

I never drove a car that shifted gears on a fucking touchscreen. I am not going to do that.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 40 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You have to shift gears with a touchscreen?? WHAT??!?

Oh, it gets worse.

In theory, you weren't even supposed to have to do that, because the car would decide for you which direction you should go. (Probably based on simple object detection -- if an obstacle is directed forward, you must want to go backward, right? And if no object is detected forward, default to forward.) And the touchscreen controls were only there for the 'rare' occasion when you'd need to override the car's automatic decision.

[–] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I had a friend with a tesler try to justify that to me like "yeah it usually works". It's just... They invented a problem that didn't exist.

So did the 50 ways new cars decided to make stupid levers and knobs and buttons to bop it twist it pull it to shift and mess with a known interface for no reason. The automated one is another level of stupid beyond that, though.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

So did the 50 ways new cars decided to make stupid levers and knobs and buttons to bop it twist it pull it to shift and mess with a known interface for no reason.

Well... I can see getting rid of the traditional big lever in favor of something else -- that big lever takes up a lot of space in the dashboard or center console that could be used for other things, and a lot of the replacements are much more compact, saving space. But manufacturers haven't yet come to a consensus about what exactly that replacement should be, which is why you're seeing such (potentially confusing) variety these days.

(But I'm sure that if a vehicle is your daily driver, you'd quickly get used to whatever interface it used and it would begin to feel fairly natural. The problem would come in for people who often need to change cars, like people who often find themselves driving short-term rentals. Then it would be very annoying to keep changing the interface for shifting the transmission.)

And that's all ignoring that we've already had a solution for a long time that frees up dash/console space:

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 22 hours ago

it's all computer...

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

Let's be honest, these cars were made for rich children who can't read or count.

[–] Etnaphele@lemmy.world -4 points 1 day ago

It’s really not that big of a deal. They also have no ignition/start button, which is the only sane way of have it in a EV. You just get in and drive.