Clearly they use it for identification if as the OP said the camera can be used to load your driver profile. As far as I know that goes directly against the EU law stating no biometric data can be processed by the camera.

I think it’s unacceptable and indicative of this dangerous path we are headed down as whole. There’s already been a few write ups on how cars are the most privacy disrespecting “devices” out there, which is wild considering we have smartphones.

With the driver facing camera we have no control over it also has complete access to our travel data, probably knows exactly who we are in the car with, records all our private conversations etc. etc.

It’s so tiring to hear people defend this as if privacy is a thing of the past and anyone advocating it is being dramatic.

I think its interesting how north Europe is compared to North America. Stockholm, Sweden is on the same level as Alaska. The Canadian/US border is roughly level with Paris.

Honestly would not have given any of the options you provided a second glance, I have looked, albeit briefly, at third party options. Every option you provided has the offset sticks which I don’t want. The touchpad is a bonus, the Steam one a larger one at that - there’s a ton of things you can do with them. You can even make your own console style radial menus for them.

This is way cheaper than the “Elite” Xbox controller and PS equivalent though? As stated in my region 100 usd is the rough price of a Dualsense or Xbox controller.

The only competitor with a touchpad I know of is the Dualsense, but the battery is trash and it has a mic and speaker which is more annoying than useful to me.

Valve has built a lot of trust with their hardware snd every indication is that is will be a very servicable device.

I feel like your negatives, while subjective are just completely meaningless to me, who would gladly buy this over anything else, especially considering the terrible battery life my Dualsense has had.

Not having RGB to me just seems good, no battery drain and stupid “gamer” styling.

Colour choice sure, but I would have picked black.

Offset sticks would mean I wouldn’t be interested at all.

Console support is entirely meaningless to me, I guess not for everyone but Steam devices are already geared towards PC gaming so it should come as no surprise.

If you have a Steam Deck you should be aware the touch pads can be unbound if that is your preference, so any accidental touches are avoided.

And regarding the price that is the price of an Xbox or PS5 controller in my region already, What is the price for you?

I can’t speak for triggers using different tech as I don’t know enough (or care lets be honest) but I would’ve appreciated the adaptive trigger tech in this one, while underused I think it can be great, especially for driving games.

I feel like you are some sort of power user with a very strict preference, which you seem to make the mistake of thinking your average user is. I just want a controller that does the job and does it well, with some few requirements, like non offset sticks. I might enjoy adjustable sticks. but I will not be bothered by it not being there.