Honda bucks industry trend by removing touchscreen controls

Honda has done what no other car maker is doing, and returned to analogue controls for some functions on the new Honda Jazz.

While most manufacturers are moving to touchscreen controls, identifying smartphone use as their inspiration - most recently seen in Audi's latest A3 - Honda has decided to reintroduce heating and air conditioning controls via a dial rather than touchscreen, as in the previous-generation Jazz.

Unlike what the introduction states, Honda joins fellow Japanese car maker Mazda in not just blindly using touchscreens for everything inside cars. This is a good move, and definitely takes some guts, since I've seen countless car reviewers - including my standout favourite, Doug DeMuro - kind of blindly assuming that any car without 100% touchscreen control is outdated, without questioning the safety consequences.

Good on Honda.