Honda Jazz Sticks With Physical Controls For Some Functions

One of the problems that many people have with modern automobiles is that automakers continue to try and do away with all manual, dial controls in favor of touchscreen controls. Many drivers don't care for touchscreen controls that require you to take your eyes off the road to control things like the temperature inside the car.Honda is going a different way with its latest vehicle called the Jazz. While the vehicle has a touchscreen for many functions, commonly used functions like temperature controls use knobs and dials. The project leader for the Jazz vehicle says that the reason for the manual controls is simple. Takeki Tanaka says that the automaker wanted to minimize driver distraction for operation.

He says specifically that Honda wanted to minimize distraction for the heater and air conditioning controls. He says that the automaker changed from a touchscreen to manual controls after receiving customer feedback that it was difficult to operate the touchscreen controls intuitively. Drivers had complained that they had to look at the screen to operate the controls in the past.

Some believe that touchscreen or analog controls will both be replaced by voice-controlled actions and cars of the future. Many drivers, particularly those who are older, still prefer knobs and dials and are likely to continue to do so. The Honda Jazz is available in the UK.

The latest version is the 2020 Honda Jazz. Honda announced this month that the vehicle would start at a little under £19,000. The car is a supermini offered in hybrid-only with SE, SR, and EX trims available. The most expensive version of the vehicle starts at £23,580.