Why Drivers Are Turning Against Touchscreens — And What the Law Says About It

There's a moment almost every modern driver has experienced. You're on a dual carriageway, it's raining, and you need to turn the heated rear windscreen on. In a car from 2010, that's a single dedicated button — found by touch, pressed in half a second. In a brand-new 2025 model, it might be buried three menu layers deep inside a 12-inch touchscreen that requires you to take your eyes off the road entirely. Sound familiar? You're not alone — and now there's data to prove it.

What the Driver Power 2026 Survey Actually Found

AutoExpress's annual Driver Power survey — one of the most comprehensive owner satisfaction studies in the UK — has revealed something that should make car manufacturers sit up and take notice. Satisfaction with in-car touchscreens is declining, and drivers are increasingly frustrated with certain safety systems that, paradoxically, are supposed to make motoring easier and less stressful.

The Driver Power 2026 findings show that touchscreen interfaces are among the lowest-rated aspects of modern vehicles, with many owners finding them unintuitive, distracting, and unreliable. Meanwhile, some driver assistance technologies — including lane-keeping assist and speed limiters — are generating significant dissatisfaction, with drivers describing them as intrusive, poorly calibrated, or actively annoying.

This isn't a fringe view. Thousands of UK drivers participated in the survey, making it statistically meaningful. The message is clear: the industry's headlong rush towards digital-first interiors has overshot what drivers actually want.

Why This Matters: The Context Behind the Complaints

To understand why this backlash is happening now, you need to understand how we got here.

From around 2015 onwards, car manufacturers — inspired partly by the success of Apple and Tesla's minimalist interiors — began replacing physical buttons, knobs, and switches with large central touchscreens. The appeal was obvious from a production standpoint: one screen is cheaper to manufacture than 30 individual switches, it looks sleek in press photographs, and it can be updated via software without physical changes to the car.

But there was a problem. Driving is not the same as using a smartphone. When you're scrolling through your phone, your full attention is available. When you're driving, it categorically is not. Physical controls work through muscle memory — you can operate them without looking. Touchscreens cannot be operated without visual engagement, however briefly.

Research backs this up comprehensively. A 2020 study by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), commissioned by IAM RoadSmart, found that using a touchscreen while driving caused significantly greater impairment than using a handheld mobile phone — with reaction times increasing by up to 53% compared to undistracted driving. That's a sobering figure.

The Driver Power results suggest that after years of being told this technology is progress, British drivers have simply had enough.

The Legal Angle: When Touchscreens Become a Liability

Here's where things get genuinely serious, and where many drivers don't realise the legal ground they're standing on.

The Highway Code and distraction

Rule 149 of the Highway Code states clearly that you must not use a hand-held mobile phone or sat nav while driving. But the broader principle — avoiding distraction — runs throughout the Code. Rule 148 warns against "in-car systems" that take your attention from the road, and Rule 150 advises that you should never be distracted by in-car entertainment systems.

Crucially, operating a touchscreen infotainment system while driving could, in the right circumstances, constitute driving without due care and attention under Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. This offence carries between 3 and 9 penalty points, an unlimited fine, and potentially a driving ban.

The distinction that matters

There is a legal distinction between using a built-in infotainment touchscreen and using a hand-held device. Touching your car's own screen is not, in itself, the same offence as using a mobile phone — the specific offence under Section 41D of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (as amended in 2022) targets hand-held devices. However, if a police officer observes you fumbling with a touchscreen menu in a way that clearly distracts you from driving, a careless or dangerous driving charge remains entirely possible.

Manufacturer liability — an emerging question

There's a more complex legal question beginning to emerge: if a manufacturer designs an interface that requires a driver to look away from the road for several seconds to perform a basic function, could that design itself contribute to liability in the event of an accident? UK product liability law under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 holds manufacturers responsible for defective products that cause injury. While no UK case has yet definitively established that a poorly designed touchscreen interface constitutes a "defect" in this sense, it is not an outlandish argument — and legal commentators have begun raising it.

Euro NCAP's changing position

Euro NCAP — the independent body whose safety ratings influence millions of car-buying decisions — has begun factoring interface usability into its assessments. From 2026, its testing protocols give greater weight to whether safety-critical functions (like hazard lights and demisters) can be accessed quickly and without excessive visual distraction. This is a significant shift, and it gives commercial weight to what drivers have been saying for years.

What Drivers Should Know: Practical Advice

If you're buying a new car, already own one with a frustrating touchscreen, or are worried about the legal implications of modern in-car tech, here's what you need to know.

Before you buy:

• Test the touchscreen thoroughly during any test drive. Navigate to the climate control, change the radio station, and activate the rear demister — without looking at the screen. If you can't do it, that's a red flag.
• Check for physical shortcut buttons. Many manufacturers — including Volkswagen, following significant customer backlash — have begun reinstating physical controls for frequently used functions. Look for these before committing.
• Research the specific model's interface. Owner forums and Driver Power results are invaluable here. Some manufacturers' systems (notably Mazda's rotary-dial approach) consistently score well for usability.

If you already own a touchscreen-heavy car:

• Learn your system's voice controls. Most modern infotainment systems respond to voice commands that allow you to change temperature, switch radio stations, or set navigation without touching the screen. It takes time to learn, but it dramatically reduces distraction.
• Use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay where available. These third-party interfaces are generally more intuitive than manufacturer-built systems and can be operated more safely.
• Set up your preferences before you drive. Temperature, seat position, audio settings — configure everything while stationary. Treat adjusting the touchscreen while moving as a last resort.

Regarding safety systems:

• Lane-keeping assist and intelligent speed assistance (ISA) can be temporarily disabled in most vehicles — check your manual. However, be aware that from July 2022, all new cars sold in the EU (and largely adopted in UK type approvals) were required to include ISA as standard. You may switch it off per journey, but it will often re-enable on restart.
• If a safety system is malfunctioning or behaving erratically, document it and report it to the manufacturer. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a car that doesn't perform as a reasonable person would expect — including its safety systems — may be subject to repair, replacement, or refund rights.

Looking Ahead: The Industry Is Finally Listening

The Driver Power 2026 findings arrive at a pivotal moment. Several major manufacturers have already begun reversing course. Volkswagen Group — which drew heavy criticism for removing virtually all physical buttons from the Golf 8 — quietly reintroduced dedicated shortcut buttons in the facelift model following sustained owner complaints. Hyundai and Kia have retained physical climate controls across most of their range and consistently score well in owner satisfaction surveys as a result. Even some luxury brands, which led the charge towards all-screen interiors, are reconsidering.

Regulators are moving too. The UK's Department for Transport has been monitoring the evidence on touchscreen distraction, and there is growing political appetite for clearer guidance — potentially even minimum standards for how quickly safety-critical functions must be accessible. The 2022 changes to the Highway Code already signalled that the government is willing to update driving rules to reflect modern road realities.

For drivers, the message is this: your frustration is legitimate, it's evidenced, and it is beginning to reshape both the market and the regulatory landscape. The era of the touchscreen-for-everything interior may have already peaked — and not a moment too soon.

The best car interface, as any experienced driver will tell you, is the one that lets you keep your eyes on the road. That's not nostalgia. That's physics.

Source: AutoExpress Driver Power 2026 survey. For the original findings, visit [autoexpress.co.uk](https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/369764/car-owners-are-falling-out-love-touchscreens-and-safety-systems).