- Mazda insists the CX-5’s giant touchscreen is preferable to bodily buttons.
- The corporate’s reasoning is {that a} button-heavy dashboard requires drivers to take their eyes off the street extra usually.
- Mounted at eye degree, the display screen is designed to attenuate distraction.
Mazda has been defending its determination to supersize the CX-5’s infotainment system ever because the crossover switched generations practically a 12 months in the past. Folks didn’t essentially have an issue with the touchscreen’s beneficiant 15.6-inch diagonal, however quite with how the dashboard is sort of totally devoid of bodily buttons. Though many have accused the Japanese firm of resorting to cost-cutting, we’ve been advised different components have been at play.
Matthew Valbuena, Mazda’s challenge supervisor of in-vehicle applied sciences and human-machine interfaces, advised Motor1 again in February that the agency is “focused on minimizing driver distraction.” In July 2025, Tamara Mlynarczyk, supervisor of public affairs for Mazda North American Operations, stated in a press release that the brand new person interface was “based on customer feedback.”
Now, one other official is standing by Mazda’s determination to offer the CX-5 a screen-centric dashboard. Talking with Australian journal Drive, CX-5 program supervisor Koichiro Yamaguchi defined why it’s safer to have a sizeable display screen quite than conventional controls. Which will sound counterintuitive, however there’s some fact to the next assertion:
Photograph by: Anthony Alaniz / Motor1
Mazda Explains Why A Display screen Is Safer:
‘Air con, you’ll be able to function with a finger, and if now we have to place the bodily button, that can be on the decrease place. Then the motive force has to look down, and [there are] 15 comparable trying switches. That signifies that you quite should look down and choose the right button – truly, requires the motive force [to take eyes] off the street. So quite than that, it is higher to have this management on the display screen – decrease this variation [distraction].’
Nevertheless, muscle reminiscence means you’re probably to make use of buttons and knobs with out having to take your eyes off the street. It takes time to study the place the whole lot is positioned, however when you do, you need to use conventional controls with minimal distraction.
In Mazda’s protection, it did pin incessantly used capabilities, comparable to local weather settings, to the bottom of the display screen. Yamaguchi did depart the door open for the return of extra old-school buttons in future fashions, however stated it might solely occur primarily based on buyer suggestions.
The CX-5 will not be the one Mazda to go down this street, because the 6e and CX-6e additionally characteristic minimalist dashboards dominated by generously sized infotainment screens. Nevertheless, these two fashions have their roots in Chinese language automobiles, and everybody is aware of prospects in China desire giant shows.
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Supply: Anthony Alaniz / Motor1
Motor1’s Take: Whether or not you’re group screens or group buttons, we will all agree on one factor: Mazda may have happy nearly everybody had it stored the local weather controls as typical buttons, separate from the infotainment system. The switchgear discovered within the firm’s rear-wheel-drive SUVs (CX-60 and up), mixed with touchscreen performance always, would have delivered the right stability.
Trying again, Mazda noticed issues very otherwise in 2019 when the Mazda3 got here out. Right here’s what analysis carried out on the time confirmed:
‘When a driver would attain in the direction of a touchscreen interface in any car, they might unintentionally apply torque to the steering wheel, and the car would drift out of its lane place. And naturally, with a touchscreen you need to be trying on the display screen when you’re touching.’
How occasions have modified.
