Automobiles are immersed in two revolutions. One seems to have a clear destination: the adoption of batteries for support decarbonization. The other is that of the buttons, and it is somewhat more diffuse. If a few years ago the main companies They launched into the arms of the screens Already the condemnation of the physical buttons, now there is a shy back. And, precisely, one of the cars that is returning to the buttons is the New Mercedes GLC.
Yes, the one with a 39.1 -inch side screen.
Mbux Hyperscreen. Presented during the Munich Auto Hall a few weeks ago, the new Mercedes GLC is a most curious electric. On the outside, it reminds us of more classic cars of the brand, but inside it is an absolute fantasy. It does not reach the end of Intel prototypes with screens everywherean idea that became ‘obscene’, but in the dashboard we have a huge screen of almost 40 inches from side to side.
It’s about your Hyperscreena subway and a half screen that simulates three screens and that has the controls of the entire infotainment system, car information and, after the steering wheel, the digital velocimeter area and important details for driving.
Reverse. When Mercedes designed it, he relegated absolutely all car controls to digital buttons on that touch screen. However, the industry is in a moment of change and there are brands that are rethinking those movements. Although shy, Mercedes has joined this with the aforementioned GLC, but also with the Cla Shooting Brake (Another electric).
The German brand has redesigned the steering wheel to include elements that should not have disappeared from it as knobs, rollers and buttons to control important sections of the car and do not have to divert the view of the road to look at a screen. The British environment Coach He has been able to talk to Magnus Östberg, head of software in Mercedes (so he must be one of the most interested in integrating everything into the user interface of the screens), who has recognized that, perhaps, they went from futurists.
The new steering wheel with buttons
The buttons are better. In the interview, Östberg pointed out that wearing the buttons back to the wheel is “the easiest and most profitable way to add physical controls to cars” while maintaining cabins in which there is great importance to digital. To the surprise of few drivers, “having that balance between physical and tactile buttons is extremely important for us. We rely on the data and what is most used, and the data show us that the physical buttons are better. That is why we have put them again,” he says in a forceful way.
The software chief commented that this will mark the Mercedes roadmap from now on and that, probably include more buttons. Now, it will not be in all models. Östberg points out that, while the flyers with buttons will mark the new path of the brand, those cars that will include more additional buttons, surely will be the SUV.
“In the largest cars we have more freedom of space and, in addition, the buyers of these ranges care more about the buttons,” he says. This may depend on the market, since the manager suggested that there could be different flyers depending on the region. He pointed out that while Europeans want buttons, Asians prefer screens and voice controls.
Climatizer controls will continue on screen
Also in the industry. The truth is that Östberg’s statements do not catch us by surprise if we take into account what other companies are doing. One of those who made a big difference between the classic and new ‘cabins’ with screens everywhere is Volkswagen and, precisely, in the Munich Automobile Hall presented Your new design language for interiors of their cars: more buttons and, in addition, real buttons (Nothing of its controversial capacitive buttons).
But it is not just that companies are realizing that the buttons are useful for security reasons: Euro NCAP announced a few months ago that cars will only get five stars (a very important marketing point for the user) If the basic functions continue to control with physical controls.
Mazda and his “Submit me the cup”. But, while some of the companies that most bet on the buttons are collecting cable, even timidly, there are others that move in an opposite direction. I mean Mazda, the Japanese company that became resistance When betting on small screens and many buttons and that, with its last models, has given the flying to embrace the touch screens.
He Mazda 6e It was a warning, but consolidation came with the Mazda CX-5 2025a car that relegated important controls to the large central touch screen. And, like Östberg, from Mazda United States, they said that drivers want … screens.
But well, despite the words of the Mercedes manager, the screens will not disappear. In fact, in Autocar, the design chief of the German firm, Gordon Wagener, said that the interior of the GLC is a luxury and that they look at Apple so that the software is the differentiating point With competition. The point now is to find that average term in which the buttons and the screens of a meter and a half manage to live together.
Images | Mercedes-Benz
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