Too many junior engineers designing cars with no peer review...
Doesn't anyone sit in the car, and see how it all works out before a design is approved?
The answer either is “NO”, or that isn’t a priority for Toyota. On the Subaru OB I traded for the Prime, the switch was on the steering wheel, where it was easily accessible. So many things are terrific on the Prime but dumb stuff like info/media and placement are subpar. But not horrible, just annoying. Try driving a VW ID4 if you want to experience the worst controls and infotainment system imaginable. These things can really hurt vehicle driveability.
Oh Canada. You have a beautiful country. We visited Alberta.
20 degrees Fahrenheit is cold enough for me in Utah can’t imagine 20 below Canada weather. I would leave heated seats and steering wheel on all the time to with those frigid temps.
Just wondering if anyone has ever accidentally opened the rear hatch when trying to turn the steering wheel heater on or off...
...Or, for that matter, opened the moonroof while trying to turn the cabin light on. I've definitely done that.
Such completely stupid button placement. Basic, elementary design mistakes. I kinda wonder whether, when you're the second-biggest automobile manufacturer in the world, you feel like you can just phone some things in.
Not as simple as your solution, but skip to 13:50 in this video and note how he shuffled switches. So another solution would be to move the heated steering wheel switch to the left and a less used switch into its place, but note what Jim said about having to trim switches because they're made for specific locations:
Shout out to @jimbo69ny for yet another helpful video!