- New Cayenne Electric’s cabin is packed with OLED, AR, and passenger screens.
- Critics argue digital dashboards feel cheap, disposable, and lack craftsmanship.
- The debate highlights convenience versus lasting quality and timeless design.
Take one quick look around the automotive landscape, and one thing is going to pop out concerning cabin design: screens are taking over. Nearly every new car on the market, regardless of price or segment, now has at least one, and most have several. Cabin design has become a contest of pixels.
Some luxury cars, like the new Porsche Cayenne Electric, are chock full of them. So today we’re asking, how do you actually feel about the industry’s obsession with all-digital dashboards?
Read: New Cayenne Electric Packs More Screens Than A Vegas Buffet Of LEDs
Speaking of the new Cayenne Electric, it’s all about immersion. Drivers get a curved OLED digital instrument cluster, a 14.25-inch central touchscreen, and an optional 87-inch augmented reality head-up display that stretches across the windshield.
Screens Everywhere, All at Once
Even the passenger isn’t left out, with a 14.9-inch screen for video streaming and app control. Porsche also layers on AI-driven voice assistance, a Digital Key shareable with seven users, and new “Mood Modes” that sync up lighting, climate, and seating to match your vibe.
But are more screens really better? Not everyone thinks so. Automotive writer Jack Baruth, has, rightly in my opinion, argued that “screens are for proles,” pointing out how quickly full-width LCD dashboards are trickling down from high-end cars to cheap Chinese sedans, and in Porsche’s case, the other way around.
His point is that screens are getting cheaper by the year, and what feels futuristic today may look generic tomorrow. After all, that same glossy array of displays you find in a $200,000 Porsche will soon appear in $10,000 electric city cars with all the charm of a microwave.
Craft Over Circuits
That’s why Bugatti, for example, has leaned into mechanical, gear-driven instrument clusters for the new Tourbillon. That costly, old-school solution emphasizes craftsmanship over pixels. When we tested the Rolls-Royce Spectre, the physical controls stood out in a similar manner.
Lessons From the Quartz Era
Want another example? Cast your mind back to the 1970s and early 1980s, during the so-called quartz crisis, when LED and digital watches convinced everyone that ticking hands were obsolete. For years, red digits and quartz circuits were the height of modernity. Until everyone had them and they suddenly didn’t.
More: Which New Car Dashboards Would Drivers From 40 Years Ago Still Recognize?
Once the novelty wore off and the market flooded with bargain-bin versions, the mechanical watch quietly reclaimed its throne, especially among luxury brands, prized not for convenience but for character.
The same story may unfold in car interiors, where glowing dashboards filled to the brim with screens promise the future yet risk aging like those once-coveted digital watches, victims of their own disposable and characterless brilliance.
Finding the Balance
On one hand, digital dashboards offer undeniable convenience, personalization, and tech integration. On the other, they risk making cars feel even more disposable, interchangeable, and less special – plus, in a few short years they’ll show their age at tech progresses at a quite steep rate. Just take a look at infotainment screens from the 2000s.
We’re not saying screens will or even should completely go away, but maybe they should learn some manners. Use them where they make sense, like for infotainment, navigation, or auxiliary readouts, and then let proper physical controls do the rest instead of relying solely on touchscreens.
Also: Which BMW Model Or Era Had The Best Interior Design?
Buttons, switches, and dials not only feel better to use, they also give designers the freedom to craft interiors with some personality again, instead of the same glass-slab aesthetic every brand now calls “minimalist”, which usually translates to one giant screen stretching from corner to corner.
So we’ll put it to you: Do you love the flexibility and high-tech vibe of digital dashboards, or would you rather see more automakers bring back timeless mechanical gauges?
