Save this story All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Rating: Rating: 7/10 All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Learn more. VW likely wants you to use this seemingly reliable voice control to change cabin temperature, but we all know most people will be reaching for physical controls instead. Here the the annoying touch-slider temperature and volume controls are at least now backlit so that you can see them in the dark. This is progress from the widely derided setup in the ID.3, 4, 5 and Buzz (a system that CEO Oliver Blume acknowledged needed attention last year), but it's by no means a finished fix. Photograph: Volkswagen Anyway, let’s talk about the 15-inch touchscreen that’s the real focal point in the ID.7. It’s a noticeable improvement on other ID models in that it has a bigger screen, while the response times, crisp graphics, and contrast are all as you’d expect. You can also personalize the homepage layout and content, and wireless CarPlay and Android Auto are a given. Less impressive is the fact that the shortcut buttons to hop between media, nav, climate, and other core menus have migrated to fiddly, small icons at the edges of the screen. And it’s also annoying that turning lane-keep assist off requires a convoluted three or four prods of the panel. Others, including Hyundai, Kia, and many Stellantis brands, allow you to turn lane-keep assist off or on with a single button, which is far preferable. Not that VW’s lane-keep assist is overly intrusive, but on narrow roads (as with almost every lane-keep system from any manufacturer), it’s still more hinderance than help. Refined, Disengaged Drive In the meantime, I punched my way through the menus to turn off lane-keep and went on my way over Spanish mountain roads in this preproduction car, which absolutely fits the bill as a long-range, low-stress cruiser. Refinement is excellent, with barely any motor whine even at low speeds, and only a subtle, momentary thrum of augmented noise if you ask for everything from that electric motor. There’s vigor to that performance from the new motor, too, albeit in a far more moderate way than your average Tesla. It still feels fizzy enough to see off a cheeky overtake or quick-merge into fast-moving traffic, even if the ID.7 never seems like a car that’s trying to entertain the driver. Rather, the whole car is focused on soothing your brow, and that shows in the assured but disengaged handling, as well as the comfy-if-wallowing ride control. My test car had optional adaptive dynamic chassis control and 20-inch alloy wheels, which sponged up cracked and rutted road surfaces, but you can't help niticing heavy body movement when you corner or brake hard. Volkswagen ID.7