“Although they look fancy, Farah said that carmakers can purchase screens for less than $50, making them significantly less expensive than tactile controls.”
Carmakers sold a sub-$50 screen as modernity and charged $40,000 to $300,000 for the car around it. The AAA Foundation found infotainment screens can distract a driver for up to 40 seconds, half a mile at 50 mph. NHTSA’s 2013 guidance on glance times was voluntary and ignored. Buttons are coming back because buyers complained, not because the regulator did its job.