BMW has been moving away from traditional switches and buttons for the past few years.
New models like the i3, iX3, and the X5/iX5 take the minimalist approach to the next level.
BMW believes talking to your car and using touch interfaces is increasingly normal among younger generations.
Ask 10 car companies why they’re moving away from buttons, and you’ll probably get 10 answers, none of which include the elephant in the room: cost-cutting. BMW also has other reasons to justify why its latest interiors lean heavily into voice and touch commands at the expense of conventional controls. Munich is embracing a future with fewer physical buttons, and apparently, that’s what the younger generation prefers.
According to the luxury German automaker, drivers are increasingly comfortable using voice commands and touchscreens, which is why dashboards over the past few years have been designed with a simplified layout. Fresh models from the Neue Klasse wave, such as the i3 sedan, iX3, and X5/iX5, have even fewer physical controls, at least compared with their predecessors.
