How Tata Motors is changing its design approach
On 16 June 2026, Tata Motors’ chief design officer Martin Uhlarik said the company will reintroduce physical buttons and switches in upcoming models. The Punch, Nexon, Curvv, Harrier, Safari and Sierra were all designed around touchscreens and haptic steering controls. Customers pushed back. Uhlarik told Autocar India: “We did go down the no-button route with a number of our products. But the reality is people do want to have some level of interface, News Source: Autocar India and we’re in the process of introducing it.” The plan is not a full reversal. Tata will keep the screens, add fewer buttons, and make those buttons better. For a decade, the entire global auto industry has been removing physical controls and calling the result modern. India’s largest carmaker has now publicly said that was the wrong design due to user feedback. The people using the car told the people designing it that the design was bad. The design is changing.
The design is changing.