alt Hacker News> Flush handles exist as brand differentiators. They're a "futuristic" feel-good feature that consumers want, like engine noise, tablets, and colorful dashboards.
Incorrect. They are most definitely there to save money on production and development costs, like all the other stuff you misattribute to brand differentiators. Consumers like lower prices, car companies like more profit. Yes, it looks fancy, but it is cheaper to produce, judt like the tablet dash.
Literally none of those are cost savings. Touchscreens are, relative to buttons, but not relative to small touchscreens (what I was actually comparing to).
I'm not sure a flush handle is actually cheaper either. The only real difference is the metal bits that connect to the latch assembly. One goes to the interior lever, one to the exterior, and one has the lock pin.
A cost-optimized flush handle gets rid of those in exchange for a motor/encoder unit. The expensive parts of the latch mechanism remain basically identical since it has to be a giant chunk of metal for safety reasons. Maybe the handle differences make up for it, but I'd want to see numbers given that it's made its way onto high end cars first.