A parking brake that is only a switch

The handbrake used to be a lever you could see. In the cars the desk has been using this month it is a switch, or a key in a row of keys, and the only proof it is on is a lamp. That is a cabin change, not a slogan. A driver who learned on a lever reaches for a handle that is not there, and then has to trust a picture.

Held, or only lit

We started writing down two things at every stop. First, whether the control is where a hand already is, or whether it sits in a screen behind a menu. Second, whether the car tells you it is held when you open the door, or whether you have to go looking for the lamp. Two of the cars chimed and showed a clear mark in the cluster. One of them put the control on the screen, two taps in, next to a function we did not need at a kerb. That one we will not praise. A brake you apply while traffic is behind you should not be a menu.

The switch itself is not the problem. A switch can be as honest as a lever if it has a place, a feel, and a lamp you can read in sun. The problem is a brake that has become a setting.

What the desk will keep

We are not scoring a brand, and we are not claiming a hill test with a number attached. The note is simpler. When the parking brake is hardware, in reach, and obvious when it is on, the cabin is easier to leave and easier to hand to someone else. When it is buried, the cabin is asking the driver to remember a path. We will keep saying which of those two we found.