Mercedes-Benz<\/a> is putting physical switches back into its cabins. Chief executive Ola K\u00e4llenius said so to Autocar in an interview published July 31, telling the British magazine that \u201cthe industry as a whole might have gone a little bit too far\u201d toward digital controls, and promising that \u201cfrom now on, you will see us reintroduce the most sensible buttons.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether carmakers had reached peak screen, he answered: \u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019re at peak screen, but we\u2019re at low button.\u201d<\/p>\n The first Mercedes to carry the company\u2019s new hard-key control strip also carries a 39.1-inch display, the largest it has ever fitted to a production car.<\/p>\n Behind the reversal sits a Euro NCAP technical bulletin that took effect January 1. It is not legislation, it awards five points out of thirty, and it lists nine functions rather than the five that have circulated in coverage since 2024.<\/p>\n The interview ran under Autocar\u2019s own headline: big screens stay, but the company went too far removing buttons. K\u00e4llenius defended the displays at length first, describing the internal test for a new interface as something a five-year-old or a Mercedes board member should manage without instruction.<\/p>\n Then came the concession. \u201cSometimes you get a bit ahead of yourself and do technology for the sake of technology and maybe forget a little bit about the customer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Autocar reported one concrete change: Mercedes has introduced physical controls on its steering wheels. K\u00e4llenius identified no vehicle by name, gave no date, and quantified nothing. The word he chose was \u201csensible,\u201d which leaves the boundary to Mercedes.<\/p>\n The position is also older than the interview. \u00d6stberg described the reversal as settled at the Munich motor show in September 2025, eleven months earlier, and attributed it to usage data from the CLA rather than to press criticism. The rocker for the speed limiter and adaptive cruise, and the roller for volume, arrived on the new GLC and the CLA before K\u00e4llenius discussed any of it.<\/p>\n Mercedes describes the change in its own words in the release for the all-new electric GLC. The center console, it says, \u201cintegrates up to two trays for inductive and rapid smartphone charging, followed by a new hard-key control strip (including hazard warning button).\u201d<\/p>\n The hazard control moves out of the touchscreen and onto the console, past the charging trays, within reach of a hand resting near the cupholders.<\/p>\n Above that strip, per the same release, sits an optional seamless MBUX Hyperscreen stretching pillar to pillar, 39.1 inches of continuous glass with more than 1,000 individual backlight LEDs and zone dimming that Mercedes has filed a patent on. Buttons came back on the car with the biggest screen the company has ever built.<\/p>\n The document driving this across the industry is Euro NCAP Technical Bulletin SD 203, \u201cGeneral Vehicle Controls Test Procedure,\u201d version 1.1, dated October 2025 and carrying an implementation date of January 1, 2026. It sits inside the Driver Engagement protocol, which was itself revised to version 1.2 in July.<\/p>\n Euro NCAP is a consumer rating organization based in Leuven, Belgium. It publishes star ratings. It does not issue type approvals, it cannot keep a car off sale, and nothing in SD 203 obliges a manufacturer to do anything.<\/p>\n It assigns points, and points move stars.<\/p>\n A test laboratory runs the assessment on a vehicle in factory settings, at a standstill unless a function requires motion, recording the whole session on video so that each control and its visual feedback can be reviewed afterward. Programmable shortcuts and favorite buttons are excluded, so a manufacturer cannot pass by letting the driver assign a function to a custom key.<\/p>\n Coverage of the 2026 change has settled on a list of five functions: turn signals, hazard lights, horn, wipers, and the emergency call. That list traces to remarks from Euro NCAP\u2019s director of strategic development, Matthew Avery, in March 2024, roughly nineteen months before the protocol was published.<\/p>\n SD 203 names nine, each with an expected physical location described by zone.<\/p>\nKey Takeaways<\/h3>\n
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![\"Interior](\"https:\/\/theweeklydriver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mercedes-glc-2027-interior-hyperscreen.jpg.avif)
\n<\/picture>K\u00e4llenius Named No Models. Mercedes Said This in September.<\/h2>\n
The Same Car Has a 39.1-Inch Screen<\/h2>\n
![\"Close](\"https:\/\/theweeklydriver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mercedes-glc-2027-console-hard-key-strip.jpg.avif)
\n<\/picture>The Rule Behind It Is a Score, Not a Law<\/h2>\n
Nine Functions, Not Five<\/h2>\n
![\"Red](\"https:\/\/theweeklydriver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mercedes-glc-2027-electric-exterior.jpg.avif)
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