What in particular do you want to avoid on the wheel? My thought is it's a perfect place for jet-style HOTAS controls, for the same reason; no moving your hands from the wheel, and driven by tactile feel and physical location.
I don't want any buttons on the steering wheel, except the horn.
I don't want a screen at all, but reversing cameras are now mandatory so that one is probably not going away.
I like the "return to real buttons" trend but it's less about buttons and more about the appropriate physical controls for the operation being performed. The control itself should both indicate current status and provide for changing it. For example, things that are "on" or "off" should have a switch with distinct "on" and "off" positions, not a single pushbutton that toggles. Temperature or volume or blower speed should be dials or sliders that move between two physical end points. If you have to repeatedly push or hold an "up" or "down" button and look at a display to set the temperature that's suboptimal. Moving a slider or dial where the physical position corresponds to the actual setting is so much better.
I want more things on the steering wheel. Anything the driver should reasonably be operating while the vehicle is in motion should be on the wheel or immediately surrounding it, IMO.
My objection to stuff on the steering wheel is that in my experience the buttons are often multifunction. I.e. a "+" and "-" button that do different things depending on a mode that is selected with some other button. Takes too much thinking while your attention should be devoted to driving.
My Mercedes is absolutely terrible at this. Having owned it for a couple of years now I still have no intuition about what most of the steering wheel buttons do. On the other hand, they get cruise control right: It's a simple stalk on the steering column. Up for faster. Down for slower. Easy to find and operate without even a glance off of the road.
If there were a few carefully chosen single-purpose buttons on the steering wheel I could maybe get on board. But if there are too many or they are multifunction then it's cognitive overload.
Yes, but also controls for things that should not even be controls. I can select---from the steering wheel---how many seconds the interior lights stay on after I close the door. Why? Just pick a reasonable number, and don't ask me to think about it. Or if you must, put that setting somewhere out of the way so I don't accidentally fall into it when I'm driving. Or better yet, give me a switch specifically for the interior lights that I can control manually. The cars back in the 1970s did a better job with this than today's cars do.
> I can select---from the steering wheel---how many seconds the interior lights stay on after I close the door.
I don't mind this feature is somewhere deep in the menus of the driver settings area. However, if you're tripping over settings like this either the car is poorly designed or your routinely delving into settings areas you really shouldn't be in while driving.
Must be a user thing. I have an "older" Subaru (2020) and looking at the linked pictures that's pretty much what my steering wheel looks like. My 2011 did as well.
It's awesome. I've never had a better cruise control button setup than in my Subarus. They're usually slightly different by model/year but we're consistently good and easy to use without looking.
I have never accidentally while driving found any settings menu getting in the way there. Yes there buttons there that do that. But only in the same way as my 25 year ago cars did: basic settings you set once and never again and that are in those menus probably for historic reasons as they were there pre-screen being standard in the car and they just left them.
The type of buttons but also the inconsistent behavior. Buttons with an indicator light for on / off state for instance (vs an actual physical toggle or switch), some times stay on when you start the car again, others reset to default. I get there are some regulatory requirements around this too, but still annoying.
It's well organized which is nice (cruise control on the right, media, etc on the left) but there's over 20 different buttons/functions there. At very least, X-Mode, Trip odometer reset, phone hold button, audio source button aren't worth the prime real estate.
I don't use my phone at all while driving so all of the phone buttons could go away in my car. I hate audio assistants, so that button could go away too. The dash control switch could be on the dash.. etc etc. I'm not a UI person and I'm sure some committee fought over every square inch of that space, but just personal preference.
