Our Chevy Bolt has a smaller in-dash screen that is needed for certain settings, but it has physical switches for most of the the usual cabin, radio, and light controls. The “transmission” is operated by a set of buttons down in the center console, between the driver and passenger’s knees. It’s definitely a lot more traditional feeling than the Tesla Model 3 cockpit.
In practice, I have my center display showing CarPlay with the Waze app on my phone, and I almost never touch the screen for anything. Radio and volume are handled by hidden buttons on the back of the steering wheel. And I have literally never used any of the Chevy “apps”. The center display could easily be replaced with a simple phone holder, or maybe a mini tablet holder for better visibility.
The instrument cluster is also a pane of glass, but they’ve done a good job of keeping it consistent so it doesn’t change or do unexpected things while you’re driving. There are also far fewer instruments needed to drive an EV: speed, power draw, and battery charge remaining are about it. It’s not like you have to worry about oil pressure or engine coolant temperatures.
IMO even though the cockpit is more cluttered, it’s far easier to use than the Tesla . The Tesla cockpit almost left me freezing once because I didn’t know what to tap where to bring up cabin heat or window defrosting, and that’s not something I could figure out while driving.
And every so often, I think a dashboard that looks more like this would be amazing:
