Carmakers are equipping their latest models with fancy touchscreens, but that could cause problems with Europe’s largest car safety authority.
The European New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) is revamping its rating system starting Jan. 1, 2026 to mandate that five of a car’s primary controls — its horn, windshield wipers, turn signals, hazard warning lights and SOS features — will need physical buttons or switches.
Car models will have to comply to get NCAP’s coveted five-star rating. The scheme is voluntary but is heeded by most automakers because it’s closely monitored by consumers.
Belgium-based NCAP says that purely digital controls are a potential safety issue.
Download your phone?
You wouldn’t download a phone
Not the whole phone obviously. But syncing all my contacts, recent calls etc.
I don’t know what cars you’ve driven, but I’ve never driven anything with CarPlay or AA that stored contacts or calls on my head unit. Moreover I’ve never had to wrestle with the head unit for 20 min. It usually initializes in a few seconds.
Were you using an old Android phone that had to download AA?
The car was the slow part, I have an S23+.
The wrestling was figuring out getting BT audio ONLY.
And until I reset the head unit to factory previous users, contacts, radio stations and destinations were all stored there.
Not great on a rental car.
When you try to connect a CarPlay or Android auto device there is usually a permissions dialog that appears. It asks you if you want use the projection software, or use the vanilla usb or Bluetooth connectivity. Perhaps you accidentally confirmed the Android auto connection, then couldn’t find how to revoke the permissions.