May 3, 2026
Dashboards Gone Wild
Physical buttons outperform touchscreens in new cars (2023)
Turns out old-school car buttons beat giant screens, and nobody in the comments is shocked
TLDR: A Swedish test found older cars with physical buttons let drivers do basic tasks far faster than modern touchscreen-heavy cars, with one old Volvo crushing newer models. The comments turned into a sarcastic victory lap, full of memes and “obviously” jokes about car design getting dumber and less safe.
The internet has responded to this car study with the exact energy of someone watching a cake fall in slow motion: total lack of surprise, plus a little smug laughter. A Swedish car magazine tested 11 newer vehicles against a 2005 Volvo V70 and found the old button-filled wagon absolutely smoked the touchscreen crowd. Drivers in the Volvo finished simple jobs like changing radio stations and adjusting heat in just 10 seconds. In the worst performer, the MG Marvel R, the same tasks took 44.6 seconds—which, at highway speed, meant traveling more than 1.3 kilometers while poking around menus. Yes, that number is as alarming as it sounds.
And the comments? Pure “we told you so” theater. One user dropped a deadpan “<surprised_pikachu.png>”, which pretty much sums up the mood: nobody is exactly stunned that real buttons are easier to use than hunting through a glowing dashboard maze. Another commenter linked to a separate Mercedes discussion, turning this into a broader "car makers did this to themselves" pile-on. Then came the killer joke: “Keyboards outperform touchscreens in new computers.” Ouch. That one landed because it exposes the bigger frustration here: people are tired of companies replacing simple, tactile controls with sleek-looking screens that make basic tasks harder. Beneath the memes is a real fear—if adjusting the temperature takes that long, this isn’t just annoying. It’s a safety drama rolling at 110 km/h.
Key Points
- •Vi Bilägare tested 11 modern cars at an airfield to measure how long drivers took to complete basic tasks while driving at 110 km/h.
- •A 2005 Volvo V70 without a touchscreen completed four tasks in 10 seconds, covering 306 meters, and was the best-performing vehicle.
- •The MG Marvel R was the slowest vehicle in the test, requiring 44.6 seconds and 1,372 meters to complete the same tasks.
- •The BMW iX and Seat Leon performed better than the MG Marvel R but still required nearly a kilometer of driving distance to complete the tasks.
- •The article cites 2020 TRL research in the UK saying Apple CarPlay and Android Auto reduced reaction times as much as drink or drug driving.