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The CEO of Volkswagen has assured that the company has learnt from its foray into touch-sensitive interior controls, and will work hard to reverse the trend across new vehicles.
Volkswagen executives have blamed previous management for the rollout of touch-sensitive controls in its vehicles that have drawn criticism – and prompted a return to physical buttons.
The German car giant says it is heading back to basics with intuitive driver operation, covering everything from how you get into its cars to what they’re called.
In an interview with the Top Gear website, Volkswagen’s CEO Thomas Schäfer promised that the company had learnt from the forward-thinking, but ultimately flawed, design work implemented on the brand’s core models.
“In the ‘old’ days we made a long list of requirements and features, but people didn’t feel comfortable using [the end product], Schäfer said, referring to the current generation of Volkswagen models.
“Now we think about people. Who is the car for? Who is driving it?”
The 2019 debut of the Volkswagen Golf Mk 8 was noteworthy for its sudden adoption of touch controls, both on-screen and through touch surfaces for climate, light, and steering wheel buttons, which quickly drew negative attention for their difficulty to operate in a moving vehicle.
Volkswagen quickly unified its all-touch interface, rolling it out on a number of Volkswagen models, with versions spreading to other Volkswagen Group brands like Audi, Cupra, and Skoda.
According to Schäfer, the development of Volkswagen’s touch-centric controls was driven by the industry trend away from defined physical interfaces, with a number of brands adopting bigger touch screens and grouping more controls within them.
“There was a spirit of iPhone-ish kind of design and utilisation that you could see coming through in many companies,” Schäfer said.
"It was a little bit difficult to get the designers off that idea.
“I said, ‘listen, there's two things that are absolutely non-negotiable for me: door handles and buttons'. I don't understand why anybody would have [touch-sensitive] sliders.”
Volkswagen head of technical development boss, Kai Grünitz, added: “I've worked for Volkswagen for roughly 30 years now. Every Volkswagen has been made for the board, and especially for the CEO.
“Luckily Piech and Winterkorn had a feeling for what the customer wanted. Changing the CEO means that everyone follows the new one.
“And if he says, 'hey, we need sliders…’ they argued a little bit, but they'd style [it].”
VW Group chairman Ferdinand Piech and CEO Martin Winterkorn were at the helm during the development and launch of the seventh-generation Golf, a car lauded for intuitive controls and luxury-car-like interior build quality upon its 2012 launch.
Winterkorn was succeeded by Herbert Diess, who led the brand's push towards electric vehicles and, with it, new-generation interiors with touch controls.
Volkswagen ID.4.
Schäfer clarified that Volkswagen’s new operating principles returned to simplicity across all aspects of the vehicle.
“A VW should have a friendly face. A door handle must be intuitive – easy to use when you arrive at the car with hands full of shopping. And we will bring back real buttons and real names, for cars you can understand immediately.”
To ensure the company avoid the mistakes of its recent past, Schäfer offered an insight into the brand’s current development method.
“We are doing customer clinics a lot, asking, ‘What do we need a button for?’ We are testing with data, using cameras inside the car to see what the customer uses and where they are looking,” he said
Evidence of Volkswagen’s latest approach can be seen most clearly on the new ID. Polo EV, which keeps a large touchscreen and digital instrument cluster, but brings back physical buttons and defined surfaces for steering wheel buttons, and some climate and audio control functions.
While the touchscreen is still the command centre for a majority of functions, its ease of use is said to have been overhauled, with supporting buttons for commonly used functions to allow eyes-off operation.
Even the name, ID. Polo, connects the car’s lineage to the petrol-powered Polo city hatch alongside which it will be sold, backed by over 50 years of history and recognition with consumers.
The naming strategy replaces the hard-to-discern ID. naming convention for Volkswagen EVs, which gives models a numerical designation like ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, etc.
Kez Casey migrated from behind spare parts counters to writing about cars over ten years ago. Raised by a family of automotive workers, Kez grew up in workshops and panel shops before making the switch to reviews and road tests for The Motor Report, Drive and CarAdvice.
