Nissan Designer Says Buttons Are Replacing Touch Panels

Physical buttons are returning to car dashboards after a multiyear push by automakers to replace switches with touchscreens, according to Hiren Patel, senior design manager at Nissan, in an interview with Ars Technica.

Why did automakers remove buttons in the first place?

The shift to touch-only interiors, including glossy piano black trim, was driven by cost and manufacturing logic, Patel told Ars Technica. "When the trend of the Piano Black and the switchless interior was happening, it was during a time when designers and companies and engineers and everybody were thinking that, 'Hey, we can just get rid of all these switches on the interior. We can put it all in the software. It'll save money. It'll save us tooling up all these extra parts for unique cars,'" Patel said, according to the outlet.

The approach looked clean in showrooms but drew complaints once cars hit the road, Patel said. Drivers told manufacturers that touch controls for climate and seat settings forced their eyes off the road in a way a physical switch does not, Ars Technica reported.

What is Nissan doing differently with the new Rogue?

Patel led design on the redesigned Rogue Hybrid, Nissan's top-selling family SUV, Ars Technica reported. The new interior relies on buttons and switches for most controls rather than capacitive touch panels, and it adds storage space throughout the cabin, according to the outlet. There is no piano black trim in the vehicle, Ars Technica reported.

The design is not purely utilitarian. The seats were inspired by puffer jackets, though they are not actually down-filled, according to Ars Technica. The rear doors were also engineered differently to improve access, the outlet reported, though Patel's remarks on that point were cut short in the material reviewed.

What do drivers actually want in car interiors?

Patel summarized customer feedback in plain terms. "People want easy, intuitive controls," Patel told Ars Technica. "They want wireless charging. They want surfaces that are easy to manage and clean, keep clean and clutter-free, and they want lots of places to store things. Oh, and the last thing is, they want easy access."

Why do modern cars struggle with controls at all?

Patel pointed to rising vehicle complexity as part of the underlying problem, telling Ars Technica that today's cars have multiple subsystems that each need their own interface. "It's really like I've got to go in all these menus and do stuff, and all the car companies have a different way of doing it, too. So maybe nobody's really figured out a great way of doing it," Patel said.

Is piano black trim going away industrywide?

The Ars Technica report frames Nissan's approach as part of a broader pushback against touch-dominant, piano-black cabins that proliferated across the industry in recent years. The outlet does not cite other automakers by name making the same shift, and the reporting centers on Nissan's Rogue Hybrid and Patel's account of the design rationale behind it.

For now, the clearest documented example of the trend reversal is Nissan's own redesign, as described directly by the designer who led it.