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Mercedes-Benz: Big screens are here to stay, but we went "too far" in removing buttons

The car industry has not yet reached 'peak screen', but it has arrived at 'low button', says Ola Källenius.

Mercedes-Benz’s screens can stretch across the full width of the dashboard.

Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius has said touchscreens in cars could become even larger in future, although he believes the wider industry may already have reached peak "low button".

Like many rival manufacturers, the Stuttgart-based brand has, in recent years, prioritised fitting large touchscreens in its cars, often at the cost of physical buttons.

The three-display MBUX Hyperscreen can be as much as 1410mm wide in certain models, making it the biggest such display offered in any production car.

There have been complaints about the growing number of functions that have been shifted from physical switches to the touchscreen.

However, while Källenius accepted those concerns, he said: "We spend countless hours on UI [user interface]. I spend hours every year discussing this with our engineers and we joke it needs to be so easy that either a five-year-old child or a Mercedes-Benz board member can use it. That is the hurdle, and once you familiarise yourself with it, it becomes second nature."

Källenius also pointed to work being done to improve voice-control systems, but admitted that "the industry as a whole might have gone a little bit too far" in the direction of digital controls.

He noted that Mercedes-Benz has now brought back physical controls on the steering wheels of its cars and said: "Sometimes you get a bit ahead of yourself and do technology for the sake of technology and maybe forget a little bit about the customer. So from now on, you will see us reintroduce the most sensible buttons."

When asked whether that meant the car industry had reached 'peak screen', Källenius replied: "I don't know if we're at peak screen, but we're at low button."