I’m normally not one to complain about new technology. However, after three weeks with my new 2023 RX 350h Luxury, I’m starting to really hate the touch sensitive steering wheel buttons. Sometimes the button registers that I’ve touched it, other times I have to touch it and move my thumb around to get it recognize my thumb. It’s very unpredictable and cumbersome. I find myself frequently having to hit the button twice to answer/end a call or skip to the next song.

I think this could be fixed with a software update that allowed the driver to enable “single press control” where the assigned function of the button is executed with one press (i.e., no touch need to touch to activate and then press). Now that I know what each button does, I should be able to just press it. I shouldn’t need to touch it, wait for the guide to be displayed in the HUD, then press. I should have the option to simply press and have it execute the command. If the driver doesn’t know what the button is programmed to do, then the light touch to activate the guide in the HUD makes sense.

How does everybody else feel about the way this works? When I watched reviews of the car, I heard the bloggers complaining about this, but I figured they just weren’t used to it. However, after 3 weeks, it’s really tedious.

Hoping Lexus realizes this and can allow us to change the behavior via a software update.

 

I’ve gotten used to the “double touch” to wake it up then do whatever I’m looking to do. I agree it could use a software tweak, but I think it’s basically pretty good. But then I actually liked the touchpad on the last gen RX, so don’t go by me.

 

I’ve largely gotten used to the touch buttons. But as I’ve mentioned in other posts, for the life of me, I don’t understand what they think they accomplished. Maybe it’s supposed to be “cool”? I’m driving a car. Give me functional. Although I’ve become OK with them and manage them fine, I would not be surprised if the next refresh of this model doesn’t eliminate the touch buttons.

The polarized sunglasses/HUD issue is almost universal in HUDs (think some HUDs have fixed this). I have a pair of non polarized sunglasses I use when driving because I rely so heavily on the HUD feature. I obviously lose the polarization benefits, which I don’t like, but I can see the HUD fine. A trade off that works for me but that may not make sense for others

 

Really like the HUD. Yes the touch controls are too sensitive!

 

No issues for me.

 

I agree with you, the need to wake up the system is terrible. If I know what button I need to push why is there a need to wake up the display first. I find it really annoying with the cruise control. This is my biggest complaint with the car.

 

I wonder if in testing they found out what VW didn’t until they released the new Golf’s with haptic steering wheel controls, people keep inadvertently changing settings by brushing a button. This would be much harder when you have to wake it up first. The real answer is dumping the haptics for actual buttons.

 

I had seen this thread and though ‘Hmm, not perfect, but the touch controls are not that bad.’.

I was mistaken. I have a Corolla rental car for my business travel this week. It has the lane keeping, dynamic cruise, audio all on the wheel in essentially the same layout. It has real buttons that respond on the first press and do the function pictured. Worked freaking great.

Not elegant Lexus and the Corolla steering wheel controls work better for the 95% of the functions actually used.

Revising my opinion to ‘a miss’.

 

Our NX has this setup and at first I am thinking how bizarre. Suggest going out on a isloated road and experiment with it. That is the only way I got it. Took less then ten minutes and now I get it.

 

Yea. I agree 100%. I’m an older guy and not very technologically savvy. Even though I had the salesman go over this on the test drive, I still struggled with the buttons on the lengthy drive back home. After a day or two I was fine with them and they are pretty much second nature now.

Still, it reminds of me some of the folks I used to work with who were constantly changing processes, organizational structure, etc. It was as if the status quo HAD to be bad. Sometimes you get to the status quo after years, and you can’t get any better and changing for the sake of changing is taking a step backwards. It’s almost as if some engineer decided this new model doesn’t have enough changes (NX or RX), let’s do this cool thing with the steering wheel buttons. Change for the sake of change to functions that were essentially perfect as they were. In this case, they screwed up a perfect system and I think they will go away over time.

 

I just got my 2025 RX 350h yesterday and already hate the steering wheel switches. It took me a one hour drive to learn the buttons and don't want to deal with the "touch, then press" sequence.

I found a dealer customized setting in the manual for "Sensitivity for starting display" and the dealership can change it from "Standard" to "High" or "Off". I'm wondering if the setting is changed to "Off", that will eliminate the two-step process.

Does anyone have any experience with this setting?

I tried uploading a picture of the manual, but Club Lexus is having issues with uploads...

 

I can't answer your question because I never tuned into this. But what I can tell you is that whatever you do, stick with it. I admit that the steering wheel controls should be more intuitive, but once you get used to however it you set it, eventually you don't have to think about it. Pavlov in action...

 

Thank you for the response. Yes, it is my lack of patience that won't allow me to wait 1/4 second to press the button . I sent an email to the service department to see what changing this setting would do and will report back to the group.

 

That setting is for the screen and not the haptic buttons on the wheel. Learn the thumb swipe press. Set your thumb on the wheel controls and swipe to the button you want to push and it only takes one press since the swipe woke it up.

 

What really frustrates me is when I am sitting at a red light and the vehicle does not allow me to use the steering wheel controls because there is no way to "wake them up" while the cross-traffic-alert is active. The CTA takes precedence on the HUD, so the UI for the steering wheel controls never comes up and they don't work.