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A few months ago, I tested the new electric Mercedes-Benz CLA. There were some aspects of the little sedan that really impressed me, but its infotainment system and lack of common-sense buttons and physical controls drove me to my wit’s end. It seems I’m not the only one, as Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius recently went on the record saying that the automaker has heard the public sentiment and since realized that it may have overdone things with its button-busting campaign.
“Sometimes you get a bit ahead of yourself and do technology for the sake of technology and maybe forget a little bit about the customer,” Källenius said, according to Autocar. “So from now on, you will see us reintroduce the most sensible buttons.”
The chief executive also remarked that “the industry as a whole might have gone a little bit too far” with digital controls, including voice commands, and, in response to a question about whether cars have reached “peak screen,” responded, “I don’t know if we’re at peak screen, but we’re at low button.”
These are encouraging comments coming from Källenius, a man leading a manufacturer that’s pushed, perhaps more boldly than most, toward replacing physical controls with screens. Of course it’s far from the only guilty party in this, as BMW is right there alongside its old rival in the digital frustration department.
Källenius said that Mercedes has already started to bring buttons back to steering wheels, but as usual, it’ll probably take a minute before we truly see this new philosophy bear out across the company’s lineup, because cars take a long time to make. But I have to respect the frankness in his reply that Merc’s designers and engineers got lost in the sauce, as it were, even if it’s often amazing to me that some of these vehicles pass real-world usability testing in the first place.
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Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
