I recently had a new Audi A6 for a week and overall I was rather impressed. It had a 2.0 litre diesel engine, which suited the car immensely, a lovely comfy interior, it rode well, if looked great. It really was a good car, and that’s before you get to the tech.

Spotify artwork on a big screen, yes of course, map where you’re speedo used to be, oh yes but there was a problem. All of the useful, comfort related stuff, which usually is operated by buttons and dials had been replaced by a touchscreen. Progress I hear you say. Now don’t get me wrong the quality of the screen was exceptional, I’d have watched match of the day on it, however there was a problem.

Now if like me you remember the old Nokia 5110s you could punch in a number and dial it without so much as glancing at your phone, now try doing that with your iPhone. The Nokia had tactile buttons in a familiar layout, much the same as my 13 year old Audi. I know where the dial is to make my buttocks warmer and what it feels like when the dial clicks into each notch to confirm that I’ve reached the next number on the dial. I know where the button to demist the windows is and what it feels like to click it off, rather than click on. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.

On the A6 I had no idea if my arse would be warm or cold, whether the rear window would be demisted or if I had just punched in the launch codes. Yes there was a tactile click when you changed something but everything had the same ‘click’. Unless I was  looking at the beautiful, high resolution screen I had no idea what I was changing.

Now I’m sure when cars are fully autonomous this will not matter, however now, when they need our input to drive them and at the same time we want to be chilled, warmed, able to see out of the rear window, it just doesn’t make sense. I don’t think it will be long before people are in court blaming their dangerous driving on needing to look at a screen. So progress or needless technology?