Chinese government demands buttons and switches for important functions

Tesla started it years ago, and many car manufacturers have joined the trend: physical controls for ventilation, heating, windshield wipers, or infotainment are disappearing more and more from car cockpits and are being replaced by buttons on touchscreens. The Chinese government wants to put an end to this unfortunate trend.

Important functions will in future be activated via buttons, levers, or gear shifts. This is reported by the Chinese car news portal CarNewsChina.com, citing the responsible Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The new regulation is set to come into force on July 1, 2027.

The requirement for physical controls applies to turn signals and hazard lights, horn, gear shift, driver assistance systems, windshield heating, window lifts, and the emergency call system. Finally, electric vehicles should have a shutdown button. The MIIT also stipulates that these should be at least one centimeter in size.

Manufacturers have transferred these functions to the touchscreen with varying degrees of consistency in recent years. This may be for design reasons. However, the primary consideration was likely to save costs on the controls.

Eyes on the traffic, not on the touchscreen

The buttons make it more difficult for drivers to operate the vehicle: Instead of blindly feeling for a physical button, slider, or knob, they have to look at the touchscreen to hit the button. As the number of functions continues to grow, some of them disappear into submenus where they then have to be searched for. This requires attention that should better be directed at the traffic.

With the regulation, the MIIT wants to improve traffic safety. Criticism of the disappearance of buttons and switches also exists elsewhere. For example, ADAC has been criticizing this development for a long time. It is "almost paradoxical" that the use of smartphones in cars is forbidden, but operating huge tablets is allowed.

The operability of vehicles is becoming increasingly poor, warned the German automobile association recently: In the ADAC car test 2025, the average of the sub-score for operability was 2.7, with some vehicles scoring as low as 4.0. According to ADAC, the average score has continuously worsened in recent years: in 2022 the mean value was 2.6, and in 2019 it was 2.3. The safety rating organization Euro NCAP has also reacted: Since January 2026, operability has been included in the vehicle rating. Pure touch solutions for safety-critical functions such as turn signals or windshield wipers will be downgraded.

In addition to the controls inside the vehicle, the MIIT has also addressed those on the outside: it recently banned retractable door handles. This measure was also justified on safety grounds.

(wpl)