Volkswagen brand CEO Thomas Schäfer promised to make vehicles easier for drivers and passengers to use, saying touch-sensitive controls “did a lot of damage” to its relationship with customers.
Schäfer said the updated cabin of the Tiguan crossover shows the brand’s move away from controls that have been widely criticized as confusing and difficult to operate while driving. The Tiguan eliminates climate-control sliders and haptic steering-wheel buttons.
“We had frustrated customers who shouldn’t be frustrated,” Schäfer told Autocar. “So we’ve spent a lot of time now — working through really systematically — on what all the functions are that a customer usually touches when using a vehicle.”
He said the company ranked the functions that customers use to help determine the design and layout of buttons, switches and touchscreen controls. And once it figures out a setup that customers like, it plans to be more consistent, Schäfer said.
“Once you have it, don’t touch it again,” he said. “Bloody leave it. Don’t confuse our customers every time a new model comes out and something is completely different. Optimize it. Bring into the future. But don’t change buttons from here to there, to there and here. At Volkswagen, we were always great for sitting in the car and you know where everything is immediately, intuitively.”
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