Touchscreen controls sure are flashy, but as far as I'm concerned when employed in a multi-ton piece of machinery traveling at 60+mph they're borderline homicidal. I know I'm not the only one who thinks this way.

I'm open to voice controls. I don't like speaking to machines, but having machines speak to me is something I appreciate (for instance I always have my GPS talk to me, I never look at the screen) and I could see myself coming around on talking to machines. But a big old glorified ipad stuck in the dash? No way.

I much preferred the fully manual controls on the late 90s early 2000 BMWs without nav to ANYTHING they have put out since. Mercedes is even worse with multiple different input gimmicks, all of which are hard to use. It’s like every year they make it worse. Somehow.

Tesla can improve with voice commands and better mapping of steering wheel controls but everyone else really just needs to scrap their entire UI and start over because their current software is just 15 years of monkey patches from the first navigation control models in the early 2000s.

I'll admit Tesla has a few quality issues to iron out but jeebuz, every modern car has HORRIBLE software implementation(s). Horrible UI, buggy infotainment, resets, etc.

At least with Tesla you'll get constant upgrades and updates. Tesla's choice of almost no hardware interface, again, mimics the iPhone. Before that, everyone crammed a crappy keyboard on the phone that it turns out you don't need. "But how will I compose emails!?"

Slowly, and not-at-all in the rain being the answer.

So I expect that EVs with range-extenders to launch first, but there still doesn't seem to be any major commitments along that front.

Yep, but I think many others will have to go through the same journey before they believe in having a pure-BEV.