{"id":83599,"date":"2025-09-10T12:37:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T16:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=83599"},"modified":"2025-09-10T12:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T16:37:16","slug":"bmw-volume-knob-why-it-stays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=83599","title":{"rendered":"The Last “Knob” Standing: Why BMW Won\u2019t Kill the Volume Dial"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems everywhere you look on the internet today, someone is mourning the loss of physical controls and buttons in their new vehicles. Most end up getting replaced by digital controls<\/a>. But there\u2019s one button that\u2019s not going anywhere: the physical volume dial. In talks with Stephan Durach, Senior Vice President UI\/UX Development at BMW, we learn exactly why the volume dial is still here. And, why we may need to worry if it suddenly vanishes.<\/p>\n

BMW Won\u2019t Completely Eliminate Physical Controls<\/h3>\n

As you may already know<\/a>, BMW collects terabytes of data from its vehicles. In that data, BMW sees how, when, and where people interact with their cars the most. \u201cWe have 10 million cars out there,\u201d Durach says, \u201cand can see what our customers are doing.\u201d BMW then analyzes the data to reach logical conclusions about how to change the cabin, iDrive system, and car to make it better reflect how people use it the most.<\/p>\n

Durach says some of the most used features ended up on the steering wheel and will remain there for the foreseeable future. But one of the longest holdouts will be the volume dial, which Durach says gets a huge amount of use. That\u2019s doubly surprising when you consider volume controls are also available on the steering wheel. Perhaps thrice as surprising when you realize many current models have a roller dial and button as opposed to a traditional \u201cknob.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, Durach clarifies. \u201cOur statistics clearly show that people use this volume knob quite often, even if only to mute \u2014 then, it\u2019s just a push. Maybe a mute button would be enough, but we said \u2018no, people want to change the volume control as well.\u2019\u201d Data demonstrated that BMW drivers overwhelmingly relied on the traditional volume dial for muting and configuring audio levels. Ultimately, it shows that BMW is willing to build in physical button redundancies. But only if the data supports it.<\/p>\n

The Volume Dial is a Line in the Sand<\/h3>\n

Durach includes window and mirror controls in the same bracket as volume dials. He says that everything can\u2019t get moved to the steering wheel. It isn\u2019t efficient use of space and won\u2019t give drivers the experience BMW is after. Things that people adjust while driving \u2014 like mirror position, volume, and windows \u2014 need to be accessible. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea to remove every remove every button,\u201d he says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do that, you know.\u201d When asked whether there was a functional disadvantage to other features moving away from buttons or just nostalgia, he\u2019s a bit divided. \u201cI think it\u2019s a mixture of both,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The volume knob\u2019s presence in a BMW cabin functions as the proverbial line in the sand. A more cynical writer may also call it a canary in a coal mine, but I\u2019ve digressed. There\u2019s no mission to get rid of buttons. It\u2019s all, apparently, data-driven decisions. As long as drivers continue to use the volume knob \u2014 and other fortunate holdouts like the mirror controls \u2014 your BMW\u2019s cockpit will have them. If physical controls really matter to you \u2014 use them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems everywhere you look on the internet today, someone is mourning the loss of physical controls and buttons in their new vehicles. Most end up getting replaced by digital controls. But there\u2019s one button that\u2019s not going anywhere: the physical volume dial. In talks with Stephan Durach, Senior Vice President UI\/UX Development at BMW, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}