Enlarge / The Cayenne gets a facelift for model-year 2024, and that includes a lot of Taycan-like touches. But we're most excited by the fact that Porsche is pulling back from touchscreen overload. (credit: Porsche)

Something many of us can agree on is that there are too many touchscreens in modern cars. They're distracting to use , particularly when it's for often-used things like the car's climate controls. Consider this a feel-good story then, because Porsche has shown us the interior of its next Cayenne SUV, and it seems that in Stuttgart, buttons are back on the menu. Some, at least.

An almost entirely touchscreen user interface was probably Porsche's only misstep with the otherwise-excellent Taycan . Indeed, when Audi used that car's platform to make its own electric express, the e-tron GT , it was notable that the climate control touchscreen was gone, replaced with actual buttons to make it hotter or cooler, more or less windy. There's no need to use a touchscreen to aim the air vents in an e-tron GT, either, unlike in a Taycan.

It is therefore encouraging to see that Porsche's design team is listening to feedback, because in many other ways the refreshed interior of the Cayenne incorporates a lot of Taycan-like touches.

Enlarge / Apple's MacBook Pro lineup. (credit: Apple )

Capping a week of Apple rumors about the company's mixed-reality headset plans and its efforts to design its displays and wireless chips in-house, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple might reverse years of design decisions and rhetoric and add touchscreens to a future MacBook Pro refresh.

The report says Apple's hardware engineers are "actively engaged in the project" and that the company is "seriously considering" the move, but "plans could change" before the touchscreen Mac's possible launch in 2025—don't expect them to come with the M2 MacBook Pro refresh we're expecting this year.

If true, this wouldn't be the first time that Apple tested Mac touchscreens internally. In fact, multiple company execs over the last decade-plus have gone on the record to say that Apple has tested touchscreen Macs—usually while explaining why they think touchscreen Macs are a bad and unworkable idea.

Enlarge / We're not the world's biggest fans of all-touchscreen interfaces, so it's good to see Ford adding a physical control for temperature and fan speed to the Mach-E by adding new functionality to the car's volume knob. (credit: Ford)

This week, Ford pushed out a new over-the-air software update to its Mustang Mach-E electric crossovers . The new software "power-up," version 4.1.2, adds a bunch of improvements to Ford's Sync 4A system, including a new UI, more full-screen Apple CarPlay, and a couple of new games. But perhaps the most notable improvement is the addition of physical controls for the climate control and heated seats.

Well, kind of. As you might imagine, an OTA software update would probably struggle to add new physical hardware to a car, at least until someone finally develops replicator or transporter technology. Rather, Ford has leveraged the fact that the Mustang Mach-E's infotainment screen features a large, twisty knob to control the volume.

But now, the knob will do double duty. If a driver taps one of the icons to select the temperature, fan speed, or heated seats, the knob switches over from controlling volume to controlling the temperature or fan speed (depending upon which one you selected).

Enlarge / Not all progress is good. (credit: Hispanolistic/Getty Images)

It's probably a little early to be warning of extinction, but in some new cars, buttons are becoming hard to find. Given that a screen has to go into the dashboard anyway (thanks to things like backup camera requirements) and the fact that people increasingly won't consider a car without Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, touchscreens make life easier for automakers in terms of design and assembly.

It's just that they don't make life easier for drivers. Instead, we're treated to bad interfaces that don't create muscle memory but instead distract us while we should be driving. And now, Swedish car publication Vi Bilägare has the data to prove it .

VB tested 11 new cars alongside a 2005 Volvo C70, timing how long it took to perform a list of tasks in each car. These included turning on the seat heater, increasing the cabin temperature, turning on the defroster, adjusting the radio, resetting the trip computer, turning off the screen, and dimming the instruments.