Like any industry led by designers, the automotive world is subject to trends and fashions. Often, these are things the rest of us complain about. Wheels that used to be 16 inches are now 20s, because the extra size makes the vehicle they're fitted to look smaller, particularly if it's an SUV with a slab of electric vehicle battery to conceal. Front seat passengers now find themselves with their own infotainment screen, often with some kind of active filter tech to prevent the driver from being distracted by whatever it is they're doing. And of course le buzz du jour, AI, is being crammed in here, there, and everywhere.
But the thing about fashion and trends is that they don't remain in style forever. For a few years, it was hard to drive a new car that didn't use piano black trim all over the interior. The shiny black plastic surfaces hide infotainment screens well when the display is not turned on, but they scratch and show every speck of dust and lint and every smudge and fingerprint. And that's true for the cheap econobox to the plush luxobarge. The industry finally cottoned on to this, and "black gloss has had its time—we can do without it," Kia designer Jochen Paesen told me a few years ago.
Many of those design trends may have been annoying, but the switch away from buttons isn't just about aesthetics; it's affecting safety. And increasingly, safety regulators are pushing back. A couple of years ago, we learned that the Euro New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) organization, which crash tests cars for European consumers, decided that from 2026, it would start deducting points for basic controls that weren't separate, physical controls that the driver can easily operate without taking their eyes off the road. And now ANCAP, which provides similar crash testing for Australia and New Zealand, has done the same.
