BMW is doubling down on a nearly buttonless interior for its Neue Klasse lineup — the i3 sedan, iX3, and X5/iX5 — and the company's justification is generational. BMW Group Australia CEO Vikram Pawah put it plainly in a recent interview: younger drivers, those 45 and under, are already living in a voice-and-touch world, and BMW's interiors should reflect that. "They want things done quickly and they're multitasking," Pawah said.
It's a confident position. It's also one that runs headlong into a body of highway-safety research suggesting that touchscreens and voice interfaces — the very tools BMW is betting on — carry measurable distraction costs that physical buttons largely avoid.
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