"The vehicle must retain the five important safety functions of direction indicator lights, emergency lights, horns, wipers, and SOS buttons as' lever operation 'or' physical button operation ', otherwise it will not receive a five-star safety rating."

　　This statement comes from E-NCAP's recently released "2026 New Edition of Safety Testing Standards for Public Consultation".

　　As an authoritative automotive safety evaluation agency, E-NCAP has clearly stated that in the new tests to be implemented in 2026, it will reduce the safety rating of cars that overly rely on screen touch operations.

　　Bitter touch operation has been going on for a long time

　　As an automotive safety evaluation agency, E-NCAP naturally pays more attention to the impact of touch operation on automotive safety. However, in reality, the touch operation of some automotive products nowadays not only affects driving safety, but also has a significant impact on the convenience of daily use.

　　In 2012, the first generation Tesla Model S successfully launched a "screen revolution" in the automotive cockpit field.

　　The groundbreaking use of a 17 inch car central control screen instead of all physical buttons has made the large screen of in car cars a trend that various car companies are competing to follow.

　　Obviously, this is not a satisfactory change at present.

　　After all, changing all the functions in the car to touch control and integrating them all into one screen is a bit too much.

　　For example, rearview mirror adjustment and steering wheel adjustment. In traditional car models, these two functions are operated through physical buttons inside the car, which are simple and easy to use. The positions of the buttons are generally relatively fixed, especially for rearview mirror adjustment. When reversing and entering the garage, the driver can completely operate them blindly.

　　But in some car cabins today, these two functions are completely integrated into the screen. If the driver wants to adjust the rearview mirror through the car screen in the scene of reverse parking. The general logic of car infotainment is as follows:

　　Step 1: First, exit the R gear because the reverse image in R gear has occupied the car screen and other functions cannot be used;

　　However, this is not particularly bizarre, as car companies still have more aggressive operations. I remember testing a test drive car from a testing company, but when I got on the car, I couldn't find the ignition button for a long time. It was even a pure fuel car, not a new energy product with more aggressive functional design.

　　At first, I thought this car was modeled after Porsche, with the start/stop button on the left side, but I couldn't find it. Later, I thought this car was learning from Ferrari, and the start/stop button might be on the steering wheel, but I couldn't find it either.

　　After a 5-minute centimeter level search of the entire car center console, a small square measuring 1cm in length and width was finally found in the bottom right corner of the car screen, with the words STOP/ENG INE written on it.

　　With a trial and error mentality, I stepped on the brake and clicked on this icon. The engine ignited successfully with a thud, and at that moment, my mood was like watching the Shenzhou rocket ignite successfully.

　　Although in car functions are all achieved through physical buttons, there are indeed many benefits, such as fixed position, clear and direct operation, easy blind operation, better stability and reliability, and use not affected by the smoothness of the car's infotainment system, etc.

　　But this does not conform to the development trend of intelligent cockpit integration.

　　In the era of software defined cars, most functions are integrated through a single car screen, and through subsequent product iterations, OTA can update new functional options, completely unaffected by the presence or absence of physical buttons. This is the product form that automotive development should have.

　　Compared to the touch buttons on the headlights of the previous Volkswagen ID series, as well as some fuel powered models such as the Golf and Magotan, the buttons on the steering wheel are more touch sensitive

　　But now in the new Volkswagen ID.2 and new Golf GTI models, physical buttons on the steering wheel and other parts are also returning, and the recently popular model, the Xiaomi SU7, which has not yet been officially launched, also uses many physical buttons in the car. It can be said that after a period of pursuit of large screens and touch technology, the car cabin is also returning to rationality.