One of the most annoying things to have ever graced modern cars are haptic buttons. In an effort to reduce cost and increase profits, car makers seemingly do not understand that what most people want are easily accessible controls and functions. Buttons are simple and easily accessible but are costly for manufacturers.

Although haptic buttons offer a clean layout and may look visually pleasing to the eyes, it can be on the dangerous side.

There have been cars released recently that do not have a user friendly interface and requires a two step process or more to change simple things like volume/climate control.

So thank goodness then for Hyundai. When Hyundai designs their cars, besides creating gorgeous cars they keep in mind these safety concerns.

“We have used the physical buttons quite significantly the last few years. For me, the safety-related buttons have to be a hard key,” said Sang Yup Lee, Hyundai’s head of design at the introduction of the new Hyundai Kona.

When you’re driving and it requires you to access menus on a touchscreen, it can be distracting as you have to take your eyes off the road which is why Hyundai had the common sense to keep the buttons and knobs as it is easy to just feel and sense the button that you want.

This is why the Hyundai Kona uses physical buttons and dials for its media controls and HVAC system.

“When it comes to Level 4 autonomous driving, then we’ll have everything soft key,” said Lee. This was him hinting that Hyundai might go heavy on the touch controls when autonomous driving becomes a common thing in the future where drivers would not have to take their eyes off the road.

Carmakers are making the switch to touchscreen control not because they are better but because they are cheaper. It’s slightly more complex when it comes to buttons due to the fact that each button is wired for different usage whereas the touch display is just on one big screen and cheaper to engineer.

With the technology available nowadays, voice recognition/command should be a common feature in all modern cars today to assist drivers with these simple tasks which is one of the features that the Kona has.

It allows you to activate and control features like climate settings, infotainment controls and side mirror heating as well as steering wheel heating via voice command.

We look forward to the return of buttons but know that is a long shot.