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.
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.
Interesting. Is that because Americans have bigger heads or weigh more overall?
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.
Are buttons actually more expensive than a touch screen?
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).