Volkswagen reveals it has brought back physical buttons

New interior photos of an upcoming electric vehicle Volkswagen reveals that the company’s previously announced plan to bring back some physical buttons will soon be a reality. What is revealed is a small, budget electric vehicle called the ID. Polo that may never see a release in the United States, but the company has made it clear that this is the new button plan for its cars in general.

As previously noted by GizmodoRumors of consumer burnout have been brewing for some time around car interiors that resemble a series of tablet computers. To be clear, VW isn’t issuing a total rebuke of infotainment screens by adding what looks like a handful of new physical buttons to this model – and this update also addresses an entirely separate issue unique to Volkswagen’s steering wheel controls – but it is at least a new data point showing a greater number of physical buttons inside a car rather than fewer.

Some aspects of the company’s earlier abandonment of certain physical buttons were considered a failure by VW itself, according to design chief Andreas Mindt. speak about the issue with extraordinary frankness to the British car magazine Autocar. “We will never make that mistake again. On the steering wheel we will have physical buttons. No more guessing. There is feedback, it’s real and people love it. Honestly, it’s a car. It’s not a phone: it’s a car,” Mindt said.

VW fans were bored by Mindt and his colleagues perhaps especially due to confusing, non-clickable buttons that require the driver to squint at the steering wheel to perform basic functions like changing music volume.

Several essential buttons that were removed, Mindt said, “will now be in every car we make. We got that,” he told Autocar, adding: “Starting with the ID. 2, we will have physical buttons for the five most important functions – volume, heater on each side of the car, fans and hazard lights – below the screen.” According to the naming scheme presented by Volkswagen, which Mindt confusingly called in this case “ID. 2all” clearly refers to the ID. Polo.

Kai Grünitz, whose title within the company is “board member for technical development,” said in a statement new press release that what is being revealed now is the company’s “new interior architecture, starting with the all-new ID.Polo”, and which includes “an intuitive operating environment with physical buttons and newly structured screens”.

Elsewhere, the release notes “Separate buttons for climate functions and hazard lights are integrated into a strip below the infotainment screen.”

Uh, but: the photos also show one Non-circular ruffles becoming more and more trendy. Volkswagen has been subtly tiptoe towards less rounded ruffles for a whileand this is another step in this dubious direction. This one doesn’t really have the shape of the Tesla yoke, who was accused of being a security riskand it is certainly not the abomination either shown almost a decade ago when VW first teased the ID. Buzz. But the shape of the steering wheel freshly revealed for the ID. The polo shirt is not a circle, but rather a 2D version of the shape a volleyball takes when you step on it.

As far as I know, consumers made it clear many years ago that they simply wanted the steering wheel to be GOOD (and not to fly away while they are driving). But if you’re the only driver in the world who particularly hates circular steering wheels, congratulations on this new victory!