If you’re the owner of a newer car, notably between 2022 and 2024, you’ve likely complained about the same thing other newer car owners complain about: there are too many damn screens. Automakers often bury everyday controls—like air conditioning, seat adjusters, heaters, and fans, and even window or child locks—in a screen.

After several studies showing they’re both annoying and incredibly unsafe (hello, distracted driving), several automakers are reverting back to physical buttons, dials, and knobs for the aforementioned functions.

Hyundai’s lead designer, Simon Loasby, told Autocar last month that the 2025 and 2026 model years of all Hyundai vehicles will have a central media screen for GPS, music, and other settings, but everyday driver controls will be buttons. That’s due to safety.

“Our philosophy is to keep your eyes on the road and keep your hands on the wheel, and then you could very quickly look at what your frequent-use interactions are,” Loasby explained. “There aren’t many… but you want them to stay as physical buttons because those are things I want to adjust without looking away.”

Subaru’s new Outback sported a minimalistic interior

Subaru vehicles have always been good about keeping screens to a minimum. However, in it 2025 models, there were still several driver functions buried in the screen. If you watched the debut for the 2026 Outback (the one that everyone’s hating on right now), you’ll notice they took notes from Hyundai.

Instead of a large screen making up about 90% of the dashboard, the new model year includes a smaller screen at the top of the dash, and the rest of the driver controls are physical buttons, dials and knobs.

The seat heater controls, which used to be in the AC settings on the screen, are now physical buttons.

The interior of the 2025 Subaru Forester, however, still has the large touchscreen. Maybe we’ll see the same interior as the Outback for the 2026 model year.

They’re not the only automakers going back to buttons

Volkswagen announced that making their vehicles very screen-centric was a mistake they’ve learned from. Instead of being riddled with screens, the newer models have had a smaller central screen with physical buttons and have received positive feedback.

“We will never, ever make this mistake anymore,” Andreas Mindt, the company’s design chief, told Autocar. “No guessing anymore. There’s feedback, it’s real, and people love this.”

Tesla, which was the company that was popular for having every control be through a screen, is pulling back. The latest Model Y has buttons for commonly used controls.