HOORAY! Euro NCAP has a plan to get actual buttons back in to car interiors

Euro NCAP – the safety testing authority – is to penalize car makers that don’t provide actual buttons for some functions from 2026.

We’ve moaned endlessly about the trend of plonking a big screen in the middle of the dashboard to control functions in new cars, bemoaning the obvious cost-cutting of deleting physical buttons to save pennies and the madness of having to plough through endless menus and sub-menus to do things an actual button could do far more safely and easily.

Frankly, on many new cars, turning the volume down and changing the temperature of the cabin is more distracting than taking a call on your mobile. It’s madness.

But now, Euro NCAP – the safety testing authority – has announced that from January 2026 car makers that don’t provide physical controls for turn signals, hazard lights, horn, windscreen wipers, and emergency calls will be penalized on their safety rating. 

It’s good news and a start, but it doesn’t go far enough as it needs to include the previously mentioned Climate and Audio controls and more.

As we said when we accused JLR of further ruining the dashboard of the 2024 Range Rover – pictured above next to the 2023 model – by shoving yet more controls into the screen, not only is it a daft and dangerous move, it looks cheap (especially when the plonked-on screen moves or groans when you prod it) and it’s aesthetically displeasing, much like an after-market Sat Nav from decades ago.

Hopefully, Euro NCAP’s move will save us from the blandness, cheapness and dangerous reliance on ugly, cheap plonked-on screens.