Ever notice how social politics got all fucked up when these went away?

I wish more companies did this.

The larger temperature controls and the vertically, slightly curved stack make so much sense to me.

I still have this. I can adjust all of it without ever looking at knobs while driving. Good luck doing that with touch bs.

Let me play devils advocate…..

One of my cars has the hvac controls on the screen and it’s usually fine, because it is actually smart. I only need to set the temperature and it remembers that.

For example now that it’s getting cold, I almost never need to touch those controls

• I can preheat through an app (no subscription needed)
• when I start my car, the thermostat is set to 69 (heh heh) where I last left it
• the car goes through a progression: heating steering wheel and seat first, then automatically off when the cabin temperature comes up
• the glaring problem is defroster. Aside from initial heat up I don’t know a good way to switch to that while driving. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be automatic and fails or if there is a shortcut somewhere

My car is still mainly like this.

It has a touchscreen thing but it's only for the entertainment and it has steering wheel controls as well so there's an alternative to using the screen while driving.

I have that heater/AC unit

It’s true. I hate my touch screen to control airflow in my car. Every time I go to adjust it, it fucks up and I’m distracted while driving.

My 2018 vehicle has intuitive tactile knobs & buttons. Easy to operate without eyes ever leaving the road. I am grateful.

Was it?

I love auto settings, it means much less fiddling/interaction (which is safer).
My last manual AC car was from the "previous millennium". Why wouldn't you want to set the temperature?
(Physical buttons tho, tho it's hard to get it these days. But even touchscreen climate control should be very low interaction.)

Also manual AC usually means no HUD, no adaptive high beams, no radar, etc. Those are essentials that do a lot for road safety, and all were available since mid 90s (high end at the time).

Yeah, just make them more robust and maybe add more steps between settings.