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Future Hyundais will debut larger displays – but the company will keep key physical controls, after discovering in focus groups that customers don't like functions buried in touchscreens.
Hyundai has announced it will introduce larger touchscreens in its cars – weeks after admitting its customers get "stressed, annoyed and steamed" by too many functions hidden in touchscreens.
The South Korean car giant has acknowledged that while it will grow its in-car displays, it will not roll out screens that cover the entire dashboard, and will retain key physical controls as a "safety issue".
The latest Hyundai and Kia cars are fitted with two 12.3-inch screens, with air-conditioning controls that use a mix of physical dials and buttons, as well as touch-sensitive controls.
Two weeks ago, Hyundai Design North America vice president Ha Hak-soo told a South Korean publication the company has learnt its customers do not like the overuse of touch controls.
"As we were adding integrated [infotainment] screens in our vehicles, we also tried out putting touchscreen-based controls, and people didn’t prefer that," he told Korea JoonAng Daily.
"When we tested with our focus group, we realised that people get stressed, annoyed and steamed when they want to control something in a pinch but are unable to do so."
Overnight, Hyundai design chief SangYup Lee has been quoted as confirming the brand is working on a "next-generation touchscreen" larger than the 12.3-inch display in the Ioniq 9.
However, he told the UK's Autocar: "The right size is most important, making the screen easy to see and read. Having the right content is also important, as is the right UX [user experience]."
Physical buttons will be retained for certain functions, such as the climate controls, to minimise the time drivers need to look away from the road.
"It’s a safety issue. OK, we’re talking about connected cars and digital content, but what is most important is safety," the designer told Top Gear.
"When you have your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel, and you get into this [touchscreen] one layer, second layer, third layer… it’s dangerous.
"Having HVAC [air-conditioning] controls [on the touchscreen] doesn’t really make sense. It’s perfectly fine when the car is stationary, but when it’s driving you should be able to grab it without noticing it."
Unlike brands such as VW, Hyundai has kept air-conditioning controls off the main touchscreens in its cars.
However, models such as the Santa Fe, Tucson and Hyundai's Genesis luxury cars fit an additional touchscreen below the central infotainment display for functions such as fan speed, recirculating air and heated seats – between dials for changing the temperature.
A certain number of physical controls will soon be needed for five stars in independent crash testing, as part of new test protocols planned to be introduced in 2026 by Euro NCAP, the European counterpart to Australia and New Zealand's ANCAP.
Contrary to expectation, these will not be air-conditioning and media controls, but rather basics such as the indicators, windscreen wipers and hazard lights.
Most brands already offer these functions through physical buttons, with the exceptions including Tesla, which sells its latest Model 3 with no stalks, and the indicator and wiper controls as touch-sensitive steering wheel shortcuts.
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.
