Oh, keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel. That’s what I remember.

The Tesla Model 3 (also Model Y and Cybertruck) give us a horrifying glimpse into a future of vehicle interfaces that ruthlessly abandon physical controls and integrate (almost) every vehicle function into a centrally-located touchscreen display.

Oddly, there’s no visibly obvious push button start or parking brake. Headlights, wipers, turn signals… where on earth have the steering wheel stalks gone? Is it too much to ask for a traditional instrument cluster directly in front of the wheel? Clearly many of these functions are buried somewhere behind the gigantic 17-inch touchscreen garishly protruding from the center console.

I’ll ask, in all sincerity, what is this new devilry?

Call me an outlier with unreasonable expectations, or simply old-school, but I would actually prefer a simple set of gauges displaying vital information (e.g. speed, range, engine maintenance notifications) in the forward view directly in-line with my view of the road ahead. Curiously, Tesla’s Model S and X do offer a separate instrument cluster but it’s missing from the Model 3 and Y. This is an incredibly strange omission from a safety standpoint. An instrument cluster directly in front of the wheel helps the driver maintain focus on the road. Glancing back-and-forth to the center of the dashboard isn’t the best scenario if you’re intent on keeping your eyes on the road.

Apparently I am not alone in this thinking, as is evident by the number of aftermarket instrument clusters for the Model 3 and Y that have been available for several years now. Some of these kits are a bit crude in the way they attach to the dashboard. Others, notably the T-Sportline MSX-Pro Driver View Dash and LCD Display, are more OEM-looking, granted you’re comfortable taking apart dashboard trim panels to mount the display and route cables from the device to the vehicle ECU located in the kick panel of the passenger footwell. The instructions appear clear enough and there are countless YouTube videos walking you through the installation process step-by-step.

Still, many of these add-on display kits commit the same mistakes made by OEMs, essentially treating vehicle UIs like a mobile phone or tablet app. We can no doubt trace this inspiration to Steve jobs’ painfully enduring legacy of iPhone design: skeuomorphism that gives drivers visually-gratuitous iconography and iOS-app-like motion-graphic animations and interactivity. But in an automobile these things become superfluous gimmicks, like Tesla’s drive mode strip that require a driver swipe an icon up or down to shift from Park to Drive or Reverse. Alternatively, a seemingly quicker method of shifting can be invoked by simply pressing buttons (P, R, N or D) on an overhead console, however only if first activated by an equally-convoluted (and tedious) process that require the driver simultaneously press and briefly hold (2) scroll buttons located on the steering wheel. All this ridiculous nonsense just to put the vehicle into Drive.

While these types of questionable design choices continue to infiltrate new vehicles, the touchscreen itself now exists as a permanent, if not unavoidable, fixture in automobile design as traditional and costlier-to-manufacture mechanical switches, buttons and potentiometers (knobs and dials) vanish. Much like the the manual gearbox, the cathode-ray tube screen and basically all forms of physical media. These things have become relics in the digital age. The old Industrial Design ethos I remember: form follows function apparently no longer applies in a world dematerializing behind rectangular slabs of glass.

The Model 3 seems to abandon many established [automobile] ergonomic design and safety principles, instead taking a form over function approach, by virtue of its emphasis on a single screen swallowing up almost every conceivable function inside the vehicle.

But really, the proliferation of touchscreen UIs in newer vehicles is fueled by manufacturer cost-cutting more than anything else, under the guise of technological sophistication and groundbreaking UX design. Software is eating the world and we now have vehicles that can be easily hacked with a USB cable, require constant OTA updates, and behave more like mobile apps complete with bullshit subscriptions to unlock features already installed. Is this really what the automotive industry thinks people want?

The use of cheap materials and components is nothing new in the automotive industry. The notion Tesla (and other auto manufacturers) are using screens that fail to meet automotive grade standards is probably less concerning against the specter of ballooning vehicle size and weight, among other issues, which have been linked to higher accident and fatality rates.

If touchscreen vehicle displays are in fact here to stay, their implementation should be more considered and utilitarian by design, in my opinion. That is, prioritizing function and purpose over aesthetics; high contrast and clear yet unobtrusive, allowing the driver to focus on, what else? Driving and the changing road conditions.

Concerning use of the touchscreen, the Model 3 owner’s manual reads like a legal disclaimer: “…avoid using the touchscreen to adjust settings while the vehicle is in motion.” but goes on to say: “Use the touchscreen to control many features that, in traditional cars, are controlled using physical buttons (for example, adjusting the cabin heating and air conditioning, headlights, etc.).” Alright then.

Experts increasingly bemoan the inherent lack of haptic feedback using touchscreens as a contributing factor to the multitude of distractions now plaguing the driving experience. This has led some automobile manufacturers, notably Porsche, to rethink the efficacy of touchscreens and return to physical controls. While this is a step in the right direction the stark reality is that our roads are saturated with distracted drivers who may be texting, making calls and fiddling around with poorly-designed infotainment systems, all of which take the driver’s eyes (and attention) off the road.

Driver assistance technologies too, are further eroding the attentiveness and skill of drivers. Cameras and blind spot monitors replacing shoulder-check (head turn) lane changes; collision avoidance systems intervening in place of emergency braking techniques. These are but a couple examples of technologies actively degrading driver competence while promoting a state of continuous partial attention on our roadways.

The latest statistics concerning distracted driving are the inconvenient proof modern vehicles are a mess of snowballing software complexity and misapplied technological innovations. Any perceived progress is in the eye of the beholder. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the previously simple and discreet incandescent amber headlight bulb, now virtually eradicated by cheap high-intensity blue-emitting LEDs that have turned driving at night, or any time of the day for that matter, into a blinding clusterfuck of an experience.

Happy motoring.