by The Era of Screens in Cars
A quick overview of the modern automotive market is enough to notice one obvious trend: screens are gradually taking over car interiors. Almost every new model, regardless of price category or segment, now has at least one display, and most have several at once. Interior design has turned into a competition in the number of pixels.
Some premium cars, like the new electric Porsche Cayenne, are literally overflowing with screens. So today we ask: how do you really feel about the automotive industry’s obsession with fully digital dashboards?
The new electric Cayenne contains more screens than a Las Vegas buffet with LED lighting
Speaking of the new electric Cayenne, it’s worth noting that it’s focused on full immersion. Drivers get a curved OLED instrument panel, a 14.25-inch central touch screen, and an optional 87-inch augmented reality display that stretches across the entire windshield.
Screens for Everyone and Everywhere
Even the passenger is not left out – a separate 14.9-inch screen is provided for watching videos and managing applications. Porsche also added artificial intelligence for the voice assistant, a digital key that can be shared with seven users, and new “Mood Modes” that synchronize lighting, climate control, and seats according to your mood.
But is more screens really better? Not everyone agrees with this. Automotive journalist Jack Baruth, in my opinion, rightly argued that “screens are for the common people,” pointing out how quickly full-size LCD panels are moving from premium cars to cheap Chinese sedans, and in the case of Porsche – vice versa.
His opinion is that screens are getting cheaper every year, and what seems futuristic today may look ordinary tomorrow. After all, the same shiny set of displays you’ll find in a $200,000 Porsche will soon appear in $10,000 electric city cars with all the appeal of a microwave oven.
Craftsmanship Instead of Microchips
This is why Bugatti, for example, bet on mechanical, gear-driven instrument panels for the new Tourbillon model. This expensive, old-fashioned solution emphasizes craftsmanship instead of pixels. When we tested the Rolls-Royce Spectre, the physical controls looked just as convincing.
Lessons from the Quartz Era
Want another example? Remember the 1970s and early 1980s, the so-called quartz crisis, when LED and digital watches convinced everyone that mechanical hands were obsolete. For many years, red digits and quartz chips were a symbol of modernity. Until they appeared everywhere and suddenly lost their appeal.
As soon as the novelty disappeared and the market was filled with cheap versions, the mechanical watch quietly reclaimed its throne, especially among luxury brands, valued not for convenience but for character.
A similar story could unfold in car interiors, where shiny dashboards filled with screens promise the future but risk aging like those once-desired digital watches, becoming victims of their own disposability and faceless shininess.
Finding Balance
On one hand, digital dashboards offer undeniable convenience, personalization, and technology integration. On the other hand, they risk making cars even more disposable, interchangeable, and less special – moreover, in a few years they will show their age, as technologies develop very rapidly. Just look at the multimedia systems of the 2000s.
We are not claiming that screens should disappear completely, but perhaps they should learn some manners. Use them where it makes sense, for example, for entertainment, navigation, or additional indicators, and then let real physical controls do the rest, instead of relying exclusively on touch screens.
Buttons, switches, and knobs are not only more pleasant to use, they also give designers the freedom to create interiors with some personality again, instead of the same glass slab aesthetic that every brand now calls “minimalism,” which usually means one giant screen stretching from corner to corner.
So we turn to you: do you like the flexibility and high-tech vibe of digital dashboards, or would you like more manufacturers to return to timeless mechanical dials?
This discussion about screens in cars reflects a broader cultural struggle between technological progress and traditional quality values. While digital interfaces offer an unprecedented level of functionality, they also create a unified, standardized experience that can reduce the uniqueness of different automotive brands. Car manufacturers face a difficult choice: to follow temporary trends or invest in design that will stand the test of time. The future likely lies in a hybrid approach where advanced technologies are combined with tactile, carefully crafted physical elements, creating a balance between innovation and timelessness.
