The 2025 Lincoln Navigator features a massive screen on the dashboard—over 48 inches of digital front yard, to be exact. In that sense, Lincoln is mimicking the same trends that Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz and others have in their respective full-size SUVs. But unlike its rivals, Ford’s luxury brand uses a pair of steering wheel-mounted touchpads for steering. And the designers figure you’ll not only enjoy using them, but appreciate the other benefits they bring to the Navi’s cabin.

That’s a very different approach than the one Lincoln’s domestic rivals took with the Escalade’s 55-inch panel, but the automaker may have been onto something. If you cheat and add together the 48 inches of the panoramic display in the Navigator with its 11-inch touchscreen – a central infotainment screen where you’d expect it – that gives a total of 59 inches of space. But touch inputs are considered only to the smaller, central panel of the satnav; the wider, upper display, which is located just below the windshield and far from the driver, is operated via touchpads. As we know, touchpads can be polarizing.

These two pads and the large infotainment screen form the basis of a user interface philosophy that Lincoln calls “up and out,” in reference to the driver’s ideal field of vision. The left pad is reserved for cruise control commands and BlueCruise, while the right is responsible for media and inputs related to apps or information on the large screen.

So Lincoln designers have developed an interior that reduces the likelihood of distractions despite the size of the larger panel. The key is the placement of the display, which should draw your gaze up and out, not down and close.

Kemal Curić, design director at Lincoln, says the team took inspiration from the aviation industry when developing the new infotainment system. “We looked at the workload of pilots and asked ourselves how we could avoid distractions and still get all the information. We realized that a HUD (head-up display) is not bad, but we found something better. And that is a way to keep your eyes on the road and still have all the information at a glance. And the resolution and 3D representation are much better on a large screen than with a HUD.”

“We found the ‘eyes up and out’ approach to be the most useful,” Curić continued. “And even the interactions – when you’re looking at the steering wheel – required that there are only haptic buttons and two touch buttons, and the rest of the time you drive with your thumbs on the trackpads. That way, your eyes stay up and you never actually have to take your hands away when you want to drive or engage. It’s all in sight and you can still enjoy the panoramic view.”

Lincoln wanted to avoid putting in technology just for the sake of it, and that attitude was reinforced by former Apple engineers who joined the team behind this new generation of Navigator. Curić says that any technology put into the cabin has to be genuinely useful. This time, the crew benefited from virtual reality design tools that allowed them to rework the interior design on the fly.

“We actually started getting data from the digital team about what will be on the screen,” Curić said. “It wasn’t just about putting hardware in for the sake of hardware. It was more about, ‘Oh, okay. What content will we have? And what will this product look like in 5-10 years? Like your iPhone, with the next iOS and with updates. What apps will we offer the customer?’

“So we started designing them. Then we found the perfect size and layout for the ride and the stand. We also asked ourselves what the front passenger will feel. What will the second row feel like? And we started designing this using VR tools. We couldn’t have done this using clay models or the paper cutouts we used to use. That was a turning point for us.”

Part of that design involved extensive testing of driver viewing points, said chief engineer Scott Grandinett, who told me that compared to most other vehicles, Lincoln opted to forego larger touchscreens that are closer to the dashboard. “We had a strategy team that spent a lot of time on human factors and looking for the right balance. Personally, I like the feeling it gives. I like the openness you feel in the cabin (…) In some of the designs, the screens are close to you, and in this case it’s very abrupt. I think the open-air feeling combined with the visibility is going to be the winning combination here.”

The feeling of not having to constantly shift your gaze between the road ahead and the screen in front of you might be the winning combination Grandinett is referring to, but a huge screen always has the potential to be distracting. So I asked Lincoln how it avoids information overload with all those pixels.

Curić said: “This also explains the size of the 48-inch screen. It’s not just about putting as much information on it as you want. It’s actually about putting as much useful information as possible and spreading it out. Think about the large entrance of your house. It’s not about putting as much furniture in as possible – if you have the space for it. It’s about placing the right amount and letting the room breathe.”

I appreciate it when automakers try something new, especially when it comes to screens. Touchpads, on the other hand, have had a hard time catching on—just ask Lexus and Acura, who have swapped theirs for traditional touchscreens within reach. Given the sheer width of the Navigator display and the depth of the dashboard overall, Lincoln would certainly have a lot to work with if it ultimately decided to back away from that bet. Fortunately, it seems pretty confident that the “Up and Out” motif and the open-air cabin it enables will be well received by drivers. Time will tell, as always.

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