The 2026 Audi Q3 has done away with a turn signal stalk in favor of needless confusion.

Audi finally got around to redesigning its compact crossover, the Q3. The outgoing generation has been on sale since 2018 so it was due for makeover. The design is a major glow up and brings the small crossover in line with the rest of Audi’s lineup. The design has gone from cutesy lease special to “that looks way more premium than it needs to.” entry level luxury crossover. It looks good. Unfortunately Audi designers and engineers went a little too wild and reinvented a simple feature that didn’t need reinventing. 

So we all know how to operate a turn signal stalk in a vehicle right? Here in North America the stalk is usually on the left side of the steering wheel and is fairly simple to use: click up for a right turn and down for a left turn. If the car is equipped with a one touch feature, you simply gently touch the stalk up or down to activate a brief flash of the indicator. Usually you can set how many times it flashes in the car’s settings. It’s one of the simplest things to use in any car. 

That’s not the case in the 2026 Q3. As you can see from the image above, Audi has completely done away with a stalk in favor of…whatever that is on the side of the steering wheel. Buttons? Anyway, it’s uselessly complicated. Audi has combined what looks to be both the turn signal indicators, wiper controls and what looks to be high beams into one control. So just how the hell do you activate the turn signal indicators? Weirdly, as a video posted to X by Autocar shows. You tap down for left and up for right. 

While some would see this and think is no big deal, it is for a few reasons. For one, needlessly making what used to be a simple feature complicated is bad vehicle design. We’ve seen it numerous times before in the auto industry, from the WK2 Jeep Grand Cherokee and its horrible and deadly shifter to massive screens in cars now with layers of menus for tasks that used to be handled by a simple button, this is what happens when engineers think too hard. Secondly, owners of this thing aren’t going to properly use their indicators anymore. Driving this new Q3, you no longer have the ability to quickly reach out to use the stalk. These new controls require a more thoughtful touch, thoughtful enough that this could be potentially distracting. 

Now to be fair to Audi and VAG (Volkswagen Audi Group), the 2026 Q3 that’s been shown is a European model. Audi has said that the new Q3 won’t reach our shores until sometime next year. Things could change between now and then. This could be a feature that’s either exclusive to the European market like its new mild-hybrid powertrain setup, or it could be something that could be offered here but wouldn’t be approved by the Feds like its new ability to project information from the driver assistance systems onto the road ahead with its headlights. But again, this is VAG we’re talking about, an automaker that didn’t see fit to light the controls for the sound system volume and temperature control in the Mk. 8 VW GTI until its most recent refresh. Hopefully someone at Audi heads back to the drawing board with these controls before the 2026 Q3 hits our shores because it’s just bad design.