HATE TOUCHSCREENS? SEE HOW THIS EV LETS YOU ADD BUTTONS
Every car with a touchscreen should work like this. Oh, and its accessory game is worthy of Apple itself.
There are many, many reasons that modern cars seem to be driving away from physical buttons as fast as they can. Automakers are eager to cut costs, especially in the electric era, and they can't cram every new advanced software feature into a button. But there's a less-cited reason why buttons aren't in vogue in some markets: buyers of China's EVs consider them "old-fashioned."
That's not true across the board, of course; every driver is different. But as a broad trend, Chinese buyers—who are used to some pretty cutting-edge tech—feel like buttons in cars are something from their parents' era.
I think the sentiment is generally very different in America, where study after study says that for safety reasons alone, there's no true replacement for a good set of physical controls. That's why the folks at Xiaomi—still a smartphone giant, now in the electric car game too—gave the new SU7 sedan the option of a detachable row of center buttons for the touchscreen.
There's the button bar, sure. But you can also get a top-mounted digital speed and range gauge cluster, a box that diffuses different fragrances, side-mounted light bars and an outdoor Bluetooth speaker much like Rivian offers.
It all seems very delightful, so much so that I wonder what the company has in store for the nearly 1,550 horsepower version coming soon.
In the meantime—more physical alternatives to just screens in cars, please.
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