Close Menu
Car Insider News
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • First Drives
  • Features
  • Auto Shows
  • Car Tech

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

What's Hot

BYD Profits Plummet as China’s Price War Hits the Top Player

August 29, 2025

2026 Porsche Macan Electric Gets a Clever Reversing Feature More Cars Should Have

August 28, 2025

Porsche Is Now Considering Fake Gear Shifts in Its EVs After Earlier Opposition

August 26, 2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
Car Insider News
Newsletter
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • First Drives
  • Features
  • Auto Shows
  • Car Tech
Car Insider News
Home»Car Tech»Why Mazda Finally Caved and Put Its First Touchscreen in the New CX-5
Car Tech

Why Mazda Finally Caved and Put Its First Touchscreen in the New CX-5

News RoomBy News RoomJuly 10, 2025No Comments4 Mins Read

Get The Drive’s daily newsletter

The latest car news, reviews, and features.

For the past several years, Mazda has remained the sole mainstream holdout in the broader industry push toward touch-based infotainment systems, relying instead on a now-anachronistic, console-mounted dial. It wasn’t bad to use, and it leaned heavily into Mazda’s “hands on the wheel, eyes on the road” safety philosophy. But after a generation of development as the only major outlier in the industry, the company is now pivoting to a conventional, touchscreen-style experience—and axing most of its physical controls in the process.

“It’s all new,” Mazda’s Stefan Meisterfeld, U.S. VP of operations, told The Drive in a one-on-one interview.

And not just “new,” but a ground-up redesign, Mazda said, and not just a re-skin of its existing operating system, and even that is underselling it somewhat.

“[It] will be powered by Google built-in technology. So we have Google Maps natively integrated, we have access to the Google Play Store. The Google Assistant will enhance the voice control. And that’s very important for us because despite this large touch screen, we continue to believe in our safety philosophy, hands on the wheel, eyes on the road,” Meisterfeld said.

2026 Mazda CX-5

The first car to embrace this strategy is the company’s redesigned CX-5, which is the best-selling model in its lineup by far. The CX-5 and its close sibling, the CX-50, comprise more than 50% of Mazda’s total volume—all in just one segment. Put another way, there’s a lot riding on this redesign, and Mazda knows it.

But it’s not just the navigation and other digital features that are moving behind the touchscreen interface with this generation; Mazda swept the dashboard of most of its knobs and switches, including the controls for the audio and climate control systems. Both are now found in the central, 15.6-inch screen.

And according to Meisterfeld, this is what customers were asking for.

“We conducted customer research and we have been working on this for quite a while because we really want it to be intuitive, easy to use, easy to operate, and at the same time, as I mentioned, we want to adhere to our safety philosophy,” he said. “But yeah, customer feedback has definitely been a part of the decision making process.”

But since Mazda was late to adopt the touchscreen, it may already be positioning itself somewhat behind the 8-Ball. As we’ve heard from others in the business, customers love to look at their touchscreens, but they’re not nearly as enthusiastic about how they work. Some, including Hyundai, are even predicting an industry-wide retreat from glass interfaces in the near future.

2026 Mazda CX-5
2026 Mazda CX-5

To hedge against this, Mazda redesigned the CX-5’s steering wheel.

“We have also developed an all new steering wheel layout with physical buttons where you can quite intuitively control most of the critical functions while driving so that you can keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, which as I mentioned, is really critical to our safety philosophy,” Meisterfeld told us.

He said further details about the new wheel controls would be revealed closer to launch, but from what we’re hearing so far, it sounds like we’ll be seeing more than just a simple collection of redundant shortcuts.

“We believe that now with the integration of Google Assistant, which is very critical with the voice command and this newly designed steering wheel, that we can offer this together with this large touchscreen so that we don’t have the situation where people want to control parts of the vehicle and are not focused on the road,” Meisterfeld said.

It’s Mazda’s hope that this integration of different technologies will strike a balance between satisfying customers’ interests in the latest tech and preserving occupant safety. It’s a big swing at a strange time; we’ll see if Mazda connects.

Got a news tip? Send it our way at [email protected].

Byron is a contributing writer and auto reviewer with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.


Read the full article here

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email Copy Link

Related News

BYD Profits Plummet as China’s Price War Hits the Top Player

August 29, 2025

2026 Porsche Macan Electric Gets a Clever Reversing Feature More Cars Should Have

August 28, 2025

Porsche Is Now Considering Fake Gear Shifts in Its EVs After Earlier Opposition

August 26, 2025

Charging Your EV Sucks a Little Less in 2025: JD Power Report

August 25, 2025

Mercedes-AMG GT XX EV Just Drove at 186 MPH for 7 Days, Only Stopping to Recharge

August 25, 2025

You Can Buy this 1,000 HP Supercharged Godzilla V8 for $39,000

August 24, 2025
Add A Comment
Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest car news and updates directly to your inbox.

Latest Articles

2026 Porsche Macan Electric Gets a Clever Reversing Feature More Cars Should Have

August 28, 20251 Views

Porsche Is Now Considering Fake Gear Shifts in Its EVs After Earlier Opposition

August 26, 20251 Views

Charging Your EV Sucks a Little Less in 2025: JD Power Report

August 25, 20251 Views

Mercedes-AMG GT XX EV Just Drove at 186 MPH for 7 Days, Only Stopping to Recharge

August 25, 20251 Views
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo

Don't Miss

This Homemade EV Buggy Took on the Rubicon Trail and Won—Twice

By News RoomAugust 20, 2025

Get The Drive’s daily newsletter The latest car news, reviews, and features. If you don’t…

How Often Do You Change Drive Modes in Your Car?

August 20, 2025

EPA’s Move to Trash Car Emission Regulations Has SEMA Thrilled, Automakers Cheering ‘Vehicle Choice’

July 29, 2025
© 2025 Prices.com LLC. All Rights Reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • For Advertisers
  • Contact

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.