You may recall last month when I railed, loudly and with a healthy spray of rage-saliva, about the horror that was the Cadillac Lyriq’s choice to have the glovebox open via a button on the touchscreen, buried within a menu. This is, of course, an absolutely abominable practice, one that’s also employed by Tesla and a few others. Nobody really wants this —at least no rational person with any ability to, you know, think — and yet it exists, and not only does it exist, it appears to exist on the otherwise lovely new Volvo EX90 that we wrote about yesterday. When I was in the car and noticed that the only ways to open the glove box were via an insipid icon on a touchscreen or, barring that, a crowbar, I realized I had to do something. So, I hunted down Volvo’s Global Head of design and demanded answers.
That Global Head of Design and User Experience is Robin Page, and he’s an extremely good sport to indulge me in this, and I should mention that yesterday I spoke with him about the EX90’s amazing headlamp design, so I didn’t just berate the poor man. I mean, I sort of did here, so you can watch:
Hm. Okay, it’s good that the icon is always there (even if that icon looks like a file folder or something) and I suppose there are a lot of customers who have deluded themselves into thinking that they want every point of interaction to be via an icon on a touchscreen, even something as basic as opening a glove box door, which has worked fine for decades with a simple latch that doesn’t require any power and isn’t dependent on software and can be used at any point with the car on or off and has never caused trouble for anyone, ever.
But now, in some focus groups, some people seem to have suggested that they’d like to open the fucking glove box via a screen. You know, like an idiot would. It’s not Robin’s fault, I suppose. It’s entirely possible people were dazzled by the magic of something on-screen having a direct effect in the physical world, like how my expression changes when someone texts me about what a jackass I am.
As my fellow Autopian David Tracy reminded me, people don’t always make good decisions, or even rational ones, and deep down, I know this, especially when it comes to cars. Cars are not rational, and they never have been, and that’s what makes them wonderful. But usually that irrationality comes out as wanting something with far more power than you can ever use, or picking a car because it seems to have a friendly face, or getting something that could tow the Lincoln Memorial, even if you’ll never do that.
But irrational choices made that actively make owning a car worse? Like being only able to access the important stuff in your glove box via one of the most complex components of your car? I can’t, I just can’t.
[Editor’s Note: I once wrote an entire article about how the Rivian R1T wooed me with its pointless electronic features. A center console with an electric switch? Totally silly, but somehow it gave the truck a futuristic, tech-y vibe. I tried resisting the lure of this clearly-backwards-step in center console functionality, but the tech geek in me was too weak. So yes, this stuff isn’t rational. -DT]
Again, the EX90 has so many impressive traits and I think Robin Page did an excellent job, overall. But the touchscreen glovebox release is a scourge, and must be called out, anywhere it rears its stupid little head.
Please, carmakers. Don’t do this.
This trend of touchscreening all the controls smells like how when gelatin became commonly available in the US in the 1950s, every American gelatinized ALL the dishes, such as for example “ham salad”, or this thing:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/196891814938973043/
May this disturbing trend fade soon.
OMG, everything on that page is the grossest “food” I ever saw. Obviously few of those recipes caught on, but Spaghetti-Os Jello mold? Barf 🙁
As the saying goes, “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should do it”
Also, the icon of a Volvo doesn’t show the EX90. Looks more like a current XC60.
Not having a physical switch for emergency flashers is an issue. Glovebox? Eh. I’d like to have the option on my Tesla, but this simple fact is I’m not in and out of my glovebox in ANY of my vehicles to care. Even though the truck actually has 2 storage spots (F-150) it just isn’t a thing. How often do you use yours?
In MY Golf, Usually 8-10 times a week, I keep small items there where I can access them without taking my eyes off the road. I know what’s there, I put it there, it’s right where I put it!
I don’t have to touch anything but the latch, and voila everything is at your fingertips, but yeah, some of us do use ours for its purpose. But not gloves. Cause that’s silly
Love forced smile on face of Volvo executive who is obviously petrified for his life.
Suspect JT will be persona non grata at next Volvo reveal.
Kudos to JT for speaking truth to power about blind obeisance to touchscreen controls, the biggest fashion statement in current automotive industrial design.
It is surprising that Volvo, a company with generally practical engineering values, would fall prey to this insipid trend.
A trend that can’t die soon enough.
Maybe they surveyed young people and found that most of them didn’t even know what a glove box was. They figured if they didn’t include an icon for it on the almighty screen, they wouldn’t use it. Seriously, though, I am hoping physical buttons make a comeback once the newness of screens wears off. How has it not, already? Additionally, I believe that these cars that are trying to be “futuristic” with all the screens and frivolous electronics are going to age HORRIBLY – like an old American luxury car with a million buttons and velour.
The thing I love most about this interview is the fact that the body language of a lying Swede is the same as in any other culture. The good-natured half-smile, half-grimace Mr. Page had on his face the entire time leads me to think he doesn’t actually believe a word of what he is saying.
He handled it well, but definitely didn’t actually answer any questions. I love the response essentially saying that “we do actually put thought into these things, and know more about what people want than you do, so bugger off.” In a nice way, of course.
For their next trick, they’ll remove all of the door handles and instead place a button to control each one (and the windows!) on the top of the front fender. People love having all of their controls in one place, and physical controls are so 2010!
It’s literally the same concept. You have a physical thing that you need to interact with, but before you can interact with it you have to push a button that is not located near that physical thing. So instead of “everything being in the same place” (i.e. the way to open the glove box being on the actual glove box), you now have two interaction points.
Just stupid.
Sir, this is an Arby’s.
More like: Sir, this is an IKEA food court.
Society: *has a large number of EV skeptics who still think of EVs as pointless technology being forced on them*
Automakers: *pack EVs full of pointless technology and force it on consumers*
Hey, at least it HAS a glovebox. (Glares at MGB dashboard)
Seriously, though, this “touchscreen all the things” nonsense has got to stop. It has no place in cars, but it has even less of a place in industrial machinery, and it’s creeping in around the edges there. Physical buttons that go click are important when you’re piloting a two-ton hunk of steel and plastic, but even more important when you’re about to send a razor-sharp cutting blade or a spinning router bit whizzing across a table at twenty inches per second. Gotta know for absolute certain whether you pushed that button or not.
Anyone who thinks this touch screen button is a good idea should have to get accidentally locked in a Bricklin SV-1 for 24 hours.
I’m not quite to “just throw my hands in the air in frustrated acceptance”, but I’m close.
I believe VW was working on hand gesture controls at some point….
I couldn’t agree with you more if I tried, Torch. This is about as monumentally stupid as it gets- what possible benefit does a touch-screen only glovebox release give? Holy shit does that smack of tech for tech’s sake. Stupid.
He kept basically referring that this is what people want, and they know this because they’ve researched. I’ve never met anyone that would want this. Who are these people?
Idiots, Volvo is literally admitting that they now believe their core customers are idiots.
Cars are designed to impress people in their twenties because they are the trendsetters and will be in prime car-buying age during the lifetime of the car. Of course, when you focus group 25-year-olds, they don’t have enough experience with bad ideas to recognize the difference between interacting with your phone and a physical moving thing.
Not anyone who has a brain, heartbeat or isn’t a total moron…so the answer is aliens want this in their spaceship
Did you ever have a friend that is a bit of a Pain in the Arse? You are cool with them for about 15-20 minutes then you want them to go straight to hell? This seems a bit like that.
Well, if opening the glove box involves a subscription service (I’m talking to you BMW, Tesla) then I am outta this barbecue.
Suggestion: You can lock and unlock via the swifty little icon on the screen but have a button just to open the bloody thing. I need my radar detector like NOW.
My question, which i havent seen asked or answered is how does it close? By app or by hand? If by hand whats the point? Open by app close by hand? Will it get damaged by people not used to app so they try slamming it shut?
Ok so people are used to touch screens for interface blah blah blah……but how many things use touch alone to trigger a physical, tangible response? Phones and tablets only produce digital or audio responses. I guess you could say touch control panels like thermostats but even that is hardly “tangible.” I’d argue the human brain wants a physical interaction to correspond to physical responses. I feel better engaged when a door has a button to electronically open than a touch sensitive trigger. Where am I going with this? I don’t know. Old(ish) man likes his physical feedback. And books in print. And Hi-C Ecto Cooler. I’m with ya, Torch!
The first thing I repaired on my 1964 Corvair was the glove box. The pot-metal frame had bent so that it no longer latched properly. As a job it was small and self-contained enough that I could do it on the bench in an afternoon. This involved much careful physical manipulation, drilling, tapping, and JB Welding but turned out great. To this day, I get much joy when I press the high-quality, lockable, chrome-plated physical button, the door opens to nicely damped stop, and the bright LED interior light turns on.
I get even more joy imagining a Volvo EX90 owner in 2080, trying to repair her touchscreen, CAN bus, and solenoid actuator.
I would also like to cook bacon while in bed but I don’t think it is a good idea
There was a shark tank product years ago that was an alarm clock that cooked bacon for you in the morning (The WAKE N BACON). The hazards of placing raw meat in an unrefrigerated environment for 7-9 hours before being cooked were not discussed.
Whatever happened to the old method of just putting a George Foreman grille on the floor next to your bed, and laying the bacon on it the night before? Set your alarm to slightly before you want to get up, plug it in, and go back to sleep for a power nap and get up for real when it smells cooked
I don’t get these inventors who have to try to overcomplicate simple things we’ve all been doing for years
No problem. Bacon is by default pretty well preserved (salt and sodium nitrite). If you leave it there for a week, it might start to get moldy, but probably your cat would get it first.
This just awful design. I am a mechanical engineer and member of ASME and SAE. KISS; KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID. I cannot imagine the notion of making a glove box latch a programmed electronic device with touch screen (no tactile feel) operation.
This made me think it would be good to be able to lock/unlock the glovebox by an app but if unlocked can open and close by hand. Also i would like to see the focus group session. Was it Wouldnt be great to be able to…. or was it Would you rather? Was it explained it was either or?
As I commented on Jason’s Lyriq rant, it doesn’t matter how you open the thing, you still need to lean across to reach into the glove box, unless your valet is with you at all times to perform the whole glove-box-accessing operation. So this touch screen button is saving you exactly zero effort.
Get his ass, Torch.
Isn’t Torch straight?
Torch’s obsession with taillights shows he is solidly an ass man.
There’s a lot of things that at first make people think “this is cool” but after living with it they realize it doesn’t make it better, and in some ways it makes things worse. The touchscreen in cars is one of those. They managed to pass of what is likely a LOT of cost saving by not having to make so many buttons and switches and putting it in a screen as cool and new. And for some functions we’ve already seen pushback (volume and climate adjusted outside the screen seems to be making a comeback, though changes still show on screen).
However the glove box in particular is an egregiously bad thing to put on screen and not really sure how it saves money, either. since you still have a latch and such. I can’t imagine anyone’s really lived with it before it went into production.
I just hate how in the age of the touchscreen, people think that a visual needs to go with every action. I think about the audio controls on early aughts Chryslers. They were 2 rocker switches on the BACK of the steering wheel, and worked beautifully without the need to take your eyes off the road. That should be the goal – keeping your damn eyes on the road, but we insist on using our eyes to do everything.
I’m glad that Chrysler has kept that. It’s convenient to have one to adjust volume and the other to change stations or FF/RW my podcasts.
This whole idea seems monumentally stupid. Is there no failsafe in case your car bricks itself? You asked the questions, Torch, but he didn’t actually answer any of them!
I have absolutely no idea what is even in my glove box, so I’m neither the target market or likely to be part of a focus group. What do people keep in there anyway? Not gloves, one imagines.
Registration, insurance card, the manual. The manual in particular is a document that I’m usually only accessing when something has gone wrong and when the car is not running. The touchscreen-only unlocking would be especially annoying in that context.
Oddly enough my wife does keep a pair of gloves in our Mazda, along with registration, insurance, first aid kit, emergency Clif bar and cleaning wipes. So we open the lid regularly and usually while parked so the touch screen is off. Of course a 2016 CX-5 uses knobs, buttons and levers for everything so in almost 6 years I’ve used the touch screen twice
Really? Registration cards, extra napkins/papertowls/zipties/screwdrivers/car manual/extra sauce packets. Years ago when I daily drove my drift car, I kept things like ratchets with the most commonly used sizes 8, 10, 12, 14mm, a crescent wrench, and channel locks.
Garmin (lifetime maps) & mount, space blanket, first aid kit with superglue (the wound repair glue of restaurant kitchens), tube of scratch repair, covid masks, glass cleaner & microfiber rag, tire gauge, little flashlight, magnifying glass, packets of hand cleaner, probably more stuff that I forget. It’s for stuff I don’t use very often.