[fastball]

I think this desire is reasonable, but also completely misses two of the main reasons Tesla did their "everything mediated thru the touch screen" in the first place (besides cost, which TFA mentions).

1. It allows for having "presets" for everything configurable in the car. If you've ever shared a Tesla, you understand this: the driver's seat adjusts itself to the right position, as does the HVAC, etc. Everything being digitally mediated means I can loan my car to someone and when I get it back, all of my settings will be exactly as I left them.

2. It paves the way for "robotaxi". You don't need physical buttons geared towards maximum ergonomics of the driver if there is no driver. Obviously Tesla hasn't quite achieved that goal yet, but that is what they are aiming for so it makes sense they wouldn't invest much at all in driver ergonomics.

Similarly, the doorhandles being flush is not entirely about "looking futuristic", but is instead another way to squeeze every last drop of aerodynamics out of the vehicle, which is incredibly important for EVs.

[laserlight]

What do presets have to do with the touchscreen? Tesla didn't invent presets. Many cars with physical buttons have had presets.

[kva-gad-fly]

The presets on my mercedes and my mustang and my honda fit work quite fine, thank you.

And these touch screens are cute until a product manager wants to show their marginally questionable value to the universe by changing the UI, buttons, placement etc. and now you are searching for the crucial functionality that you forgot to set or check, after the last OTA update occurred, before you started moving, and are now careening down the highway at 60 miles an hour...

[yencabulator]

Look at a hifi stereo unit: it has a physical volume knob, but at the same time the remote has up/down buttons. Same thing, presets work with physical buttons and knobs just fine.

[adgjlsfhk1]

It's fine (maybe even good) to allow everything through software, it's just that there needs to be hardware backups for a lot of it.