Volkswagen ID.4's window and mirror controls could be an issue

The window and mirror controls in the VW ID.4 are, um, not great. In This Short Cut Senior Editor James Riscwick demonstrates the window and mirror controlled in the Volkswagen ID.4.

Video Transcript

JAMES RISCWICK: I'm in the Volkswagen ID.4. Let's talk about something that you normally don't talk about in the car, which is its window and mirror controls. Now, there are two window switches, which immediately is weird, because this is a four door car with four windows to roll down.

So what you do is in order to roll the rear windows down, you press the rear button. See it lights up just by touching it? And then, there you go.

It is an automatic button. You just have to press it through and then you can tap that. There you go. OK, now let's talk about mirrors.

Now normally in a car, you'll have a little switch that goes between left and right, or as Volkswagen and Audi did for years, the actual toggle here can go left and right, click through it. That's kind of how this works, but it does rely on the little light behind it. See how it lights up there and then you go over here and it lights up there?

OK. Here's the problem with that. Once the car is in the sun, you cannot see the light anymore. You have to put your hand.

See, nothing is selected, so there you go. You have to put your hand there. And ditto with the rear button, because that's gone now.

You can't see if you've selected anything. You can kind of hear it, but you don't know which it is. So again, you have to cover it.

See, rear is not selected. Imagine doing that while driving. Not great.