Volkswagen is quietly reversing one of the most controversial design trends of the past decade, restoring physical controls to cabins that had been stripped back to glossy glass. After years of complaints about fiddly sliders and buried menus, the company is now promising that real buttons and knobs will once again handle the most important tasks. For drivers who never bought into the all-touch future, it feels less like nostalgia and more like overdue common sense.
How VW’s touchscreen gamble backfired
Volkswagen did not stumble into buttonless interiors by accident. The brand spent years chasing minimalist dashboards, replacing rows of switches with flat panels and haptic sliders that were meant to look futuristic and cut costs. In late 2022, the company even made what one report described as a bold and highly unpopular decision to lean harder into touch-only controls, a move that left owners swiping through endless menus for basic functions and helped set up the current course correction toward more conventional hardware endless touchscreen menus.
Inside the company, senior leaders now concede that the experiment hurt more than it helped. VW brand chief Thomas Schäfer has said the touch-heavy approach did a lot of damage to how people perceived the cars, pointing to the updated Tiguan cabin as proof that the brand is pivoting back to more physical buttons and switches that customers can operate by feel instead of guesswork after the damage. That kind of public mea culpa is rare in car design, and it underscores how far the pendulum had swung away from usability before drivers pushed it back.
Drivers never stopped wanting real controls
While designers chased tablet-like dashboards, owners were busy venting about the reality of living with them. Complaints piled up about haptic climate sliders that were hard to hit on the move, volume controls that required eyes-off-road taps, and icons that shifted location after software updates. VW’s own leadership has acknowledged that these frustrations were not niche, with Thomas Schäfer describing the no-button interiors as frustrating and admitting that the approach had damaged the brand’s reputation with people who expected intuitive controls from a company long known for practical cabins frustrating no-button interiors.
Those concerns were not just about comfort, they were about safety. When drivers have to look down and hunt through layers of menus to change the temperature or activate driver assists, their attention is pulled away from the road at exactly the wrong moment. Safety advocates have warned that burying critical functions behind glass can increase distraction, and Volkswagen itself has now linked its renewed focus on physical buttons to the goal of achieving a five star safety rating, a target that depends on keeping cognitive load in check during emergencies for a five star rating.
VW’s leadership finally says it out loud
The turning point inside Volkswagen came when top executives stopped defending the old approach and started calling it a mistake. In a series of interviews, Thomas Schäfer has been unusually blunt, saying that the touch controls did a lot of damage and promising that future cabins will not confuse customers. One report quotes him warning colleagues not to confuse our customers, because they are not right now, a line that captures how far the user experience had drifted from what everyday drivers actually wanted from their cars do not confuse our customers.
Behind the scenes, engineers and suppliers have been told to prioritize tactile feedback again, even if it costs more than a single large screen. One technical briefing notes that Volkswagen has considered the intuitive reach for actions like turning on the lights and has accepted that robust mechanical parts are considerably costlier than touchscreens, but still necessary to restore trust and usability considerably costlier than touchscreens. That is a significant shift for a mass market brand that has long watched every cent in the bill of materials, and it signals that the company now sees good ergonomics as a competitive asset rather than a nice to have.
The ID Polo shows the new philosophy in plastic and metal
The clearest expression of this rethink is the new electric hatchback that revives one of VW’s best known badges. The Volkswagen ID Polo, previewed as the ID. 2all concept and now confirmed for production, is being positioned as an affordable EV that feels familiar rather than alien. Company executives have said the car will debut in Munich at IAA as the Volkswagen ID Polo, tying the modern battery platform to a nameplate that has long stood for straightforward, user friendly transport in Europe Volkswagen ID Polo.
Inside, the ID Polo is where the button comeback becomes tangible. Reports on the cabin describe how Volkswagen has reinstated physical controls for key functions, with proper climate controls and a dedicated hazard switch returning to the center stack so drivers can adjust temperature or hit the warning lights without diving into a screen. The company says this layout is meant to reduce cognitive load for the driver by letting them operate the most important features by feel, a direct response to criticism of the earlier touch only setups climate controls and the hazard.
How physical buttons and digital screens now share the cabin
Volkswagen is not abandoning screens altogether, it is trying to make them behave more like helpful tools than gatekeepers. In the ID Polo, the infotainment system still dominates the center of the dash, but VW says the menu structure has been simplified and designed to be self explanatory, with high resolution graphics and clearer icons that reduce the number of taps needed to reach common features. The car also uses the latest version of VW’s ID Light system, a strip that communicates navigation prompts and alerts with colored signals so the driver can keep their eyes up while still getting feedback from the car infotainment menu structure.
Crucially, the new layout draws a line between what should be a button and what can live on a screen. Climate, hazard, and other safety critical functions get their own hardware, while deeper settings and infotainment features remain digital. That hybrid approach is also visible in the broader ID family, which started with the ID. 2all concept and is now evolving into a full range of compact EVs. The original ID. 2all study already hinted at a more conventional control scheme, and the production ID Polo is turning that hint into a production ready interface that blends digital polish with analog clarity.
From ID. 2all to ID Polo, a reset of VW’s small car strategy
The decision to bring back buttons is intertwined with Volkswagen’s broader rethink of its small car lineup. The ID. 2all was introduced as a compact electric hatch that would democratize EV ownership, and it has now evolved into the ID Polo, a car that carries the weight of one of VW’s most recognizable names. Search listings for the ID Polo emphasize how the model is meant to feel approachable, with a cabin that looks modern but still offers the kind of straightforward controls that long time Polo drivers expect.
That continuity matters because the Polo has always been a car for people who value ease of use over flashy tech. By tying the ID. 2all concept to the Polo badge, Volkswagen is signaling that its electric future will not be reserved for tech enthusiasts willing to learn new gestures and menu trees. Instead, the company is betting that a familiar name, a clear control layout, and a price point aimed at mainstream buyers will help it defend its position in Europe’s crowded small car segment while it transitions to battery power from ID. 2all.
Design boss Andreas Mint and the return of knobs
Inside VW’s design studios, the shift back to physical controls has a clear champion. On March 6, 2025, Andreas Mint, head of Volkswagen design, said in an interview with the automotive media Autocar that next generation VW models will come with more conventional buttons and switches because the company had understood that drivers want direct access to key functions. Mint framed the change as part of a broader effort to prioritize safety, arguing that it is better for drivers to be able to reach for a real control than to poke at a flat surface while the car is moving On March 6, 2025, Andreas Mint.
Mint’s comments align with a broader industry trend that is starting to treat physical controls as a premium feature rather than a relic. One report notes that Volkswagen is bringing back physical buttons to all its vehicles after pivoting to touch screens in recent years, with the first of the new generation set to debut in Europe. That same analysis points out that other brands, including Hyundai, have promised to keep physical controls for critical functions like temperature, suggesting that the market is converging on a similar balance between digital and analog bringing back physical buttons.
Safety regulators and advocates welcome the shift
Volkswagen’s U turn is not happening in a vacuum. Safety organizations have been increasingly vocal about the risks of overloading touchscreens with too many functions, especially in cars that already demand attention for complex driver assistance systems. A briefing from a European transport safety council notes that Volkswagen will reintroduce physical buttons in its upcoming models and explicitly links that decision to the goal of securing a five star safety rating, arguing that tactile controls help drivers keep their focus on the road when they need to adjust something quickly Volkswagen will reintroduce physical buttons.
Consumer facing reports echo that logic, pointing out that car manufacturers like Volkswagen are ditching the touchscreen for buttons on important functions because flat panels can be distracting when used for tasks that drivers need to perform frequently. One analysis notes that Volkswagen (VW) is joining other car makers in restoring physical controls for core features, quoting executives who say that knobs and switches are simply safer for things like climate and audio when the vehicle is in motion Cars manufacturers like Volkswagen. For regulators and advocates who have spent years warning about distraction, VW’s new direction looks like overdue alignment with basic human factors research.
Rebuilding trust after “frustrating” interiors
Volkswagen now faces the task of convincing skeptical buyers that it has learned from the buttonless years. Some coverage has been blunt, with one report stating that VW CEO Admits No Button Interiors Have Damaged Reputation and describing how the brand’s once solid image for usability was undermined by cabins that felt like beta software. That same piece notes that although the author is currently the proud owner of a Honda Civic Sport, she has a soft spot for Italian cars and classics, a reminder that enthusiasts who might otherwise be drawn to VW’s engineering were put off by the daily annoyance of its touch only controls Honda Civic Sport.
Volkswagen’s response has been to promise a more thoughtful mix of hardware and software. Schäfer has said that the company is carefully considering each button, switch, and touchscreen control to make sure the layout feels intuitive rather than cluttered, and that the goal is not to go back to the past but to combine the best of both worlds. That means rotary controllers for some functions, improved haptic feedback where screens remain, and a renewed focus on placing controls where drivers naturally reach, from the light switch to the volume knob However, Schäfer claims. If VW can deliver on that promise in cars like the ID Polo, it has a chance to turn an embarrassing misstep into a story about listening to customers and adjusting course.
A broader industry correction, led by a reluctant pioneer
Volkswagen is not the only carmaker rethinking its love affair with glass, but it is one of the most visible examples of a brand that went all in on touch and is now publicly walking it back. Analysts note that Volkswagen is bringing back physical buttons to all its vehicles after pivoting to touch screens in recent years, and that this shift is happening just as rivals like Hyundai are pledging to keep old school buttons for temperature and other key functions. In that sense, VW’s reversal is part of a wider industry correction that treats tactile controls as a safety feature rather than a design compromise Hyundai promised to.
For Volkswagen, the stakes are higher because the brand built its reputation on cars that were easy to live with, from the original Beetle to generations of Golf and Polo. The move to touch only cabins cut against that heritage, and the backlash has forced the company to confront how quickly a design trend can erode trust if it ignores how people actually use their vehicles. By restoring physical buttons in models like the ID Polo and tying that decision to safety, usability, and even five star ratings, VW is betting that the future of car interiors will not be a war between screens and switches but a truce that gives each tool the job it does best ditching the touchscreen for buttons.
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