Mazda Finally Admits Its Infotainment System Is the Worst (thedrive.com) 47
Mazda, the automaker that for years defended its scroll-wheel infotainment system as a safer alternative to touchscreens, is abandoning the approach entirely in the 2026 CX-5 in favor of a 15.6-inch touchscreen and zero physical buttons.
The current lineup -- the CX-50 Hybrid, CX-70 and CX-90 -- still relies on a console-mounted scroll wheel and dedicated action buttons to navigate a tablet-like screen perched atop the dashboard. Upper-trim CX-70 and CX-90 models do have 12.3-inch touchscreens, but touch input only works when parked and only inside CarPlay; it disables automatically once the car is in drive.
The new CX-5 goes the other direction entirely, eliminating all hard buttons including the volume knob and physical climate controls that current models still offer. Mazda says the touchscreen is safe because core functions like climate are pinned to a persistent bottom bar -- an approach Ford, Rivian, and most of the industry adopted years ago.
The current lineup -- the CX-50 Hybrid, CX-70 and CX-90 -- still relies on a console-mounted scroll wheel and dedicated action buttons to navigate a tablet-like screen perched atop the dashboard. Upper-trim CX-70 and CX-90 models do have 12.3-inch touchscreens, but touch input only works when parked and only inside CarPlay; it disables automatically once the car is in drive.
The new CX-5 goes the other direction entirely, eliminating all hard buttons including the volume knob and physical climate controls that current models still offer. Mazda says the touchscreen is safe because core functions like climate are pinned to a persistent bottom bar -- an approach Ford, Rivian, and most of the industry adopted years ago.
Mazda was correct (Score:5, Informative)
Only tactile feedback has any hope of keeping your eyes on the road while using the dash.
It's not as convenient for a dynamic interface... but as a driver your job is to keep the car, its occupants, and the world around it safe, not to choose the next song you want to hear.
Push-button activated voice command is a nice alternative.
Re:Mazda was correct (Score:5, Insightful)
Hear me out.
Our infotainment is the worst. Everybody says so.
But what if it could be even worser?
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This is why things like climate control being physical controls makes sense, you can reach over without looking and turn the dial to increase/decrease temperature without looking. For audio, I use voice control or on steering wheel for almost everything, or save changes to pre-sets for when I am out of traffic.
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Some cars have voice control for many controls, including climate.
Re:Mazda was correct (Score:4, Interesting)
I once had a Mazda crossover as a rental car. I only made that mistake once.
It's crazy how in every other car I had no problem doing something like changing a radio station while driving and not diverting attention from the road. But it was nigh impossible in the Mazda. I swear those cars were purposely built to enrage me. Never have I hated a car so much, for that and other reasons.
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I don't know if it was just me, but as a rental, it was, IMHO miserable. Easy to bonk one's head in getting in. The only thing that saved it was CarPlay which made the UI/UX experience a lot better than the stock Mazda stuff. The UI was fair to middling, having to hunt for options for things like it alerting to check the rear seat was ok, but barely.
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I once had a Mazda crossover as a rental car. I only made that mistake once.
It's crazy how in every other car I had no problem doing something like changing a radio station while driving and not diverting attention from the road. But it was nigh impossible in the Mazda. I swear those cars were purposely built to enrage me. Never have I hated a car so much, for that and other reasons.
Well you did rent a crossover... what were you expecting.
Mazda make or at least used to make quite good cars. I had a Mazda 6 estate as a loan car a few months back and it drove well for a large wagon with a smallish engine, never tried the "infotainment" system. However I harken back to Mazdas of yore, MX-5, RX-7/8, even the venerable Mazda 3 MPS was a very good warm hatch... The problem is that cars have just become whitegoods on wheels, people don't care about how a car drives so they all drive abysma
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Have you actually used their infotainment? It is not good at making sure you keep your eyes on the road.
Voice is slow and often doesn't work (Score:2)
"Hey mazda" (or whatever) "turn the temporature up to 20 centigrade on the drivers side"
[boop]
"Hey mazda, temperature up"
[boop]
"F*&&^^&^ sake turn the %$%$£ temp up!"
[pause]
"Would you like to navigate to ... Tempup?"
The mazda dial works well, their voice control however sucks rocks and then some, it truly is abysmal, so unless they've improved it in the new CX5 then there are going to be lots of unhappy drivers.
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Only tactile feedback has any hope of keeping your eyes on the road while using the dash.
Definitely not the way Mazda did it.
With their interface you had physical wheels and buttons, sure, but they were used to move around on a screen. So rather than just a quick glance to tap the screen icon you wanted, you had to watch the screen as you moved over to the selection and "clicked" it.
It's the worst of both worlds.
Honestly, I don't mind touch-based UIs for infotainment as long as they're well-organized and keep the important things in fixed locations, and make the buttons big enough.
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Only tactile feedback has any hope of keeping your eyes on the road while using the dash.
You clearly have never used the system in question. This was the worst of all worlds, a tactile system that *REQUIRED* you to take your eyes off the road continuously during use. At least with a touch screen you could blindly aim a finger to where you think a keypress is, with a wheel interface you actively need to look where you are at all times in the the UI while using it.
It is truly a turd of a system.
Just leave a blank 2 DIN opening in the dash (Score:4, Insightful)
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"We don't make money from that, so it can't be an option."
Re: Just leave a blank 2 DIN opening in the dash (Score:2)
I wonder what money they make from Apple and Google, because Android Auto works fine in my MX-30.
As for the rest of the controls, I don't mind using the control knob instead of touchscreen. One less screen to keep clean from smudges I guess.
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And then I can install whatever I want.
There's nothing you can install that manages the car in a way a modern system is required to. There never has been. Even in the days of 2 DIN openings you had no choice of how to control your AC system.
If the only thing in your dash is a radio then I sincerely applaud you for managing to keep your 1960s relic running so long.
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And then I can install whatever I want.
Absolutely not. Zero chance. It is how they "differentiate" models and is a huge money maker for them. Less than $1,000 in components can change the asking price by $20,000. That entire industry is dead now. No more Crutchfield.
You are captured as a consumer and they will NEVER let go. Bend over and take it like a man.
I like (Score:1)
Just give me buttons (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't want a touch screen, I want buttons. Buttons for my hvac, buttons for preset stations, buttons for my heated seats, buttons for my everything.
Then give me voice controls.
I have never touched the touch screen on my BMW. I either use voice controls, buttons on the wheel, or the physical buttons and nobs provided. Who wants to clean a greasy screen?
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You forgot the obligatory "Get Off My Lawn!" .. so here it is.
And yes, BUTTONS and DIALS are best for drivers.
The alternative is voice and steering wheel controls, but I don't like either as much as dials and actual buttons.
"Progress!!!!"
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I remember it took BMW a lot of development efforts to get the i-drive system right. Early model years were not good. But now they work really nicely.
Mazda tried to do the same thing on the cheap, had much worse results, and then decide that doubling down on the digital shit is the way to go apparently.
Unless they reverse this bad decision, I don't see Mazda existing much longer.
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Buttons are best for core vehicle functions, but touch screens are better for music/nav.
BMW voice control is very good (Score:2)
Mazdas isn't. I've driven recent models of both makes and the mazda voice control is next to useless - unless you speak slowly and carefully one of a limited set of phrases it understands (preferably while the car is stationary as noise kills the system dead) which means you have to memorise them, then you'll get nowhere. BMW meanwhile is a lot more freeform and usually gets it correct.
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I have never touched the touch screen on my BMW. I either use voice controls, buttons on the wheel, or the physical buttons and nobs provided. Who wants to clean a greasy screen?
You've never used the iDrive scroll wheel/joystick/button controller on the console? Does your vehicle have one?
I've been driving a BMW for about eight years and I love how much I can get done with that thing. Sure it's not as fast as dedicated buttons but I can do most things one handed without my hand leaving the controller. My only complaint is I do need to glance at the screen. So long as I'm not in a rush to finish the operation, it doesn't seem terribly distracting.
It's odd: it sounds like that's the
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and here i am hating on my toyota dash because the hvac buttons are a mess, no free maps, android auto volume cannot be independently controlled from music. at least i have them, plus heated seat button and a volume physical switch/turn on/off radio, and can even move to next/prior station via wheel buttons.
i guess i could be doing a lot worse
I like it (Score:3)
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lots of cars have alternate input (Score:2)
The new rivian has really cool steering wheel input devices that do good things. Mazda wasn't wrong, they just did it wrong.
just bought at 2025 cx-50 (Score:1)
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i have a knob on the console and some options to scroll through. i haven't fully utilized the features yet. what part are people saying sucks again?
My BMW has the same scroll wheel setup and I'll take it over a touch screen any day. Fortunately I also still have physical controls for all the important things, otherwise neither would be an acceptable alternative.
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If you use CarPlay, the default settings won't let you touch the screen to do anything, so you have to bounce around the UI with the scroll wheel, and with the latest CarPlay the active item is gray, and the inactive items are green. I don't know who signed off on that, but they should be fired.
You can enable [mazdausa.com] the touchscreen while the vehicle is in motion.
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If you use CarPlay, the default settings won't let you touch the screen to do anything, so you have to bounce around the UI with the scroll wheel, and with the latest CarPlay the active item is gray, and the inactive items are green. I don't know who signed off on that, but they should be fired.
You can enable [mazdausa.com] the touchscreen while the vehicle is in motion.
cool. thank you, boss
Safer... Sure, sure... (Score:2)
Because a touchscreen and no buttons will definitely make it safer. Looks like they're only just getting familiar with the idea of touchscreens while their competitors are 10 years ahead having already done the homework on touchscreens and many of them reverting back to physical buttons for actual safety.
press to burst into flames and through guardrail (Score:3)
The UI is terrible, but it's because it had too few buttons, not too many. You cannot easily, for instance, channel-surf through FM radio. And even once you finally figure out the horrible menus you need to navigate to get a screen where you can channel-surf through FM radio with considerable difficulty (while parked somewhere, if you value your life!), you can't use the display for anything else while you're doing it, and you have to be very careful not to make any wrong moves lest you end up somewhere else in the menu tree.
The Mazda scrollwheel ain't it. But full-touchscreen should be outlawed.
Mazda has its finger on the pulse (Score:4, Informative)
Right as other manufacturers realize physical buttons are good actually and are changing back:
https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]
https://www.autoblog.com/news/... [autoblog.com]
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Don't confuse physical buttons with what Mazda had. Their scroll wheel was absolutely the worst of all worlds. Imagine designing a system that required you to stare at the screen at all times while navigating the UI. Not even touch UIs do that. Mazda's system achieved the impossible there.
They could remove all physical things from their car and have on giant touch screen for everything and it would still be a major improvement on safety and operability compared to the turd they somehow created.
I don't think this is a safety thing (Score:2)
A button-less design allows the whole product line to use one infotainment unit. Year on year improvements are software only. Features can vary by model without needing different hardware. I think this is all a manufacturing cost thing.
I have never heard someone ask for a touch screen replacement for physical buttons. They don't work with all gloves. They don't work well when dirty. They require much more time with your eyes off the road. There is no customer benefit to this, only manufacturing cost.
this is a bummer (Score:2)
BMW protests (Score:2)
"We will be back! We will reclaim the title!"
Are you kidding? It's the best. (Score:4, Informative)
I own a Mazda with the center console scrollwheel. It is completely awesome. No reaching whatsoever, and very easy to navigate. It should be a model for everyone else. It got high praises when first introduced. Nothing has changed. This sounds like they just want to lower the cost of the car by getting rid of the wheel, button and associated wiring. I'm planning on a replacing my current Mazda with a slightly used one anyhow, which will still have the scroll wheel. Unbelievable. So dissapointed at Mazda.
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I disagree, it's absolutely the worst. It's a system that actively requires you to look away from the road to achieve anything, and requires it at all times. You can't do a basic activity without finding out where in their UI you were currently. It's like combining the distraction and chaos of a touch screen with physical buttons that don't do one function because they are context variable.
Probably one of the worst UI designs in automotive history.
I'm glad you like it, but you're in the absolute minority he
Y'all can afford new cars? (Score:2)
I'm not sure I like the idea of a touchscreen. I'm pretty well accustomed to physical controls, and wary of "more things to break", or, "one thing, but you're f'd if it breaks".
So while other automakers are adding buttons back (Score:2)
Used a few on rental cars with Carplay (Score:1)
Awesome! Now they just need to... (Score:2)