Very good points. I’m with you on a lot of them. It was one of the catalysts for tracing the UI in the first place; I wanted to see how they could possibly remove the buttons and still make it work. I think they’re sacrificing the good experience of the driver to help the passenger intentionally.

I think their internal question was “how do we build a car for today’s drivers that will be better for tomorrow’s passengers?”

Also, I think about the car itself as a platform or operating system. They want to find a body style and manufacturing process that will see them through the next 5–10 years, and they know that the only way they can do that is by getting the early adopters, who will put up with more crap than most, to ignore it’s faults while the regulations give way to driverless future.

I don’t think this car is transformative, as much as it’s transitional. Much better driving experiences can and are being made. Much better riding experiences will and should be made. This is the middle ground that gets the latter to become mainstream, or it’ll fall flat on it’s face.