The good news is that at least as it pertains to getting rid of physical controls, automakers have largely learned their lesson and are trying to go back as fast as reasonably possible (while also trying to balance recouping the tooling costs from fewer buttons). VW was heavily heavily criticized and is bringing it all back.

I’m confident that if consumer sentiment starts to skew one way regarding electronic door handles, we will also see a reversal. What is unfortunate now is that other automakers are following the lead that Tesla set. Tesla essentially proved one type of electronic door and it is engineered in such a way to be cheap and reliable enough. I’m confident that if engineers are given the space to really innovate and explore ideas, they can find something that is both better mechanically while remaining highly aerodynamic.