1413

European car safety body is coming for touchscreens. The European New Car Assessment Programme mandates that key controls need physical buttons or switches (www.politico.eu)

submitted 7 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

211 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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.

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 months ago

Of they can save a couple of cents by having less buttons they’ll have less buttons.

Are buttons actually more expensive than a touch screen?

[-] hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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).

[-] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago

Interesting. Is that because Americans have bigger heads or weigh more overall?

[-] hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 7 months ago

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.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 months ago

I have no idea how airbags work, but I assume you can just slot in different sizes?

Adding buttons requires certain infrastructure to be present in the vehicle. There needs to be places to insert them, though they could have separate dashboard panels if they want to build two for each vehicle, and wires/inputs for them. They could have two versions for all this, but it does require some extra effort.

[-] hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 7 months ago

Just think about the logistics involved ensuring the correct airbag is slotted. You don’t want to be sued in the US because someone got hurt or killed because the airbag was not up to spec. The damage to the brand would be bad too. Any way, it’s not as simple as just plugging in one thing or the other.
You could absolutely have the same wiring on both versions and just slot in different front ends (button/buttonless). I recall a couple of cases for that as well - e.g. wiring for a (DAB) antenna that is not in every version of the car or hard drives where the capacity is defined by the firmware (though having identical hardware)

[-] HubertManne@kbin.social 3 points 7 months ago

grand caravans had a screen that was not availble on all trims. if you did not have it you just had a plastic plate in its place.

this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024

1413 points (99.8% liked)

World News

39019 readers

2211 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.