European car safety body is coming for touchscreens
www.politico.eu
The European New Car Assessment Programme mandates that key controls need physical buttons or switches.

Carmakers are equipping their latest models with fancy touchscreens, but that could cause problems with Europe’s largest car safety authority.

The European New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) is revamping its rating system starting Jan. 1, 2026 to mandate that five of a car’s primary controls — its horn, windshield wipers, turn signals, hazard warning lights and SOS features — will need physical buttons or switches.

Car models will have to comply to get NCAP’s coveted five-star rating. The scheme is voluntary but is heeded by most automakers because it’s closely monitored by consumers.

Belgium-based NCAP says that purely digital controls are a potential safety issue.

  • @[email protected]English
    16•8 months ago

    I’m afraid they won’t. When I was a Student I had a summer job at Mercedes assembling cars. At the time cars sent to the US needed bigger airbags - you’d think it’d be less error prone at negligible extra cost to just equip all cars with the bigger airbags but they didn’t.

    If they can save a couple of cents by having less buttons they’ll have less buttons.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•8 months ago

      Of they can save a couple of cents by having less buttons they’ll have less buttons.

      Are buttons actually more expensive than a touch screen?

      • @[email protected]English
        6•8 months ago

        You’ll have a touch screen either way and it’s possible that the functions of the buttons are available on some app too.

        Just as basically all cars except current Teslas do.

        I think the EU would be doing Tesla a favor if they force them to add physical controls to switch between D, R, N, P.

        Edit: The current Tesla Model 3 should comply with the new rule (not 100% sure about hazard lights).

    • CethinEnglish
      1•8 months ago

      I have no idea how airbags work, but I assume you can just slot in different sizes?

      Adding buttons requires certain infrastructure to be present in the vehicle. There needs to be places to insert them, though they could have separate dashboard panels if they want to build two for each vehicle, and wires/inputs for them. They could have two versions for all this, but it does require some extra effort.

      • @[email protected]English
        3•8 months ago
        1. Just think about the logistics involved ensuring the correct airbag is slotted. You don’t want to be sued in the US because someone got hurt or killed because the airbag was not up to spec. The damage to the brand would be bad too. Any way, it’s not as simple as just plugging in one thing or the other.
        2. You could absolutely have the same wiring on both versions and just slot in different front ends (button/buttonless). I recall a couple of cases for that as well - e.g. wiring for a (DAB) antenna that is not in every version of the car or hard drives where the capacity is defined by the firmware (though having identical hardware)
      • HubertManne
        3•8 months ago

        grand caravans had a screen that was not availble on all trims. if you did not have it you just had a plastic plate in its place.

      • @[email protected]English
        1•8 months ago

        According to Wikipedia it’s weight:

        US regulation FMVSS 208 requires that bags be engineered and calibrated to be able to “save” the life of an unbelted 50th-percentile size and weight “male” dummy.

        Assuming the regulation in the EU is similar and given that US average weight/BMI is higher than European average US airbags need to be bigger.