Carmakers Must Stop Trying to Literally Reinvent the Wheel. The BMW iX3 Is Proof

• The BMW iX3 has two particularly egregious interior design no-nos.
• The steering wheel doesn't just look bad; it's hard to use.
• If you want to reposition the air vents, you have to do it through the touchscreen.

It's a ... squircle?

What on earth is this steering wheel? From a design standpoint, it's a mess — when it's right on center, it looks like it's turned 90 degrees to the left or right. I'm not just irked by the 12 o'clock stalk. It's the fact that the wheel doesn't have a natural feeling in your hands while turning. 

When your hands are placed at the correct 9-and-3 position, the little indents for your thumbs are slanted and they'll occasionally slide down into the little divots closer to the center. The would-be 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock stalks don't physically connect to the hub of the wheel, so your thumbs could get pinched between the wheel rim and the airbag. 

Thankfully, BMW does offer a less offensive-looking steering wheel as part of the M Sport Professional package; I've included a photo of it below. It still has the same thumb-placement issues as the ugly wheel, but at least this one looks better.

Weirdly shaped steering wheels are not a new trend; automakers decided a while ago that a flat-bottomed wheel automatically screams "sports car!" But now we're ditching circular steering wheels altogether. The C8-generation Chevy Corvette is a particularly awful example. Ditto the new Volvo EX30. Don't even get me started on Tesla's stupid yoke.

A traditional wheel offers a consistent feeling and diameter across 360 degrees; a square, D-shaped squircle or a yoke do not. This makes for inconsistent grab points during hand-over-hand steering maneuvers, and poor design choices like the iX3 encourage improper hand placement while driving, which is a safety issue.

A Formula 1 car has a video game controller for a steering wheel because it's a freaking race car. Your new Tesla Cybertruck is not.

Oh, good, the air vents are harder to use now

I had an interesting conversation with a BMW product spokesperson during the iX3 media launch in Málaga, Spain. I asked why BMW chose to remove manual air vent directional controls and instead put this function in the central touchscreen, and they said it's because people will just position the vents once and never change them. I disagree. 

If I have passengers in the back seats, I want to point the middle air vents up so they can blow air toward the rear. I want my front seat passenger to be able to position the vents wherever it makes them the most comfortable. I don't think I'm weird — well, not because of this, anyway.

BMW is not the only carmaker that puts air vent controls in the car's multimedia display. Porsche, Rivian and Tesla are all guilty, too. But was this really a problem that needed solving? Were customers actually asking companies to make it more difficult to make simple adjustments?

Another point the BMW spokesperson made was that not having central directional controls on each vent makes for a cleaner look. Sure, I'll give them that. But vent controls can also be a beautiful piece of design when done correctly. Look at a modern Mercedes-Benz, or even a Honda Civic. Real knurled metal knobs in the middle of vents can be just as visually stunning as a control-free look.

Carmakers, ask yourselves: Are "features" like these something customers really want? Or are they just novelty for novelty's sake?