Goodbye buttons: Vauxhall GT Concept is a new level of hands-free

Home / News / Goodbye buttons: Vauxhall GT Concept is a new level of hands-free

The Jetsons lied to us. The cars of the future won’t fly – but they won’t have any controls beyond the steering wheel, either.

That’s the concept Vauxhall is showing off at the Geneva Motor Show this week, with the incredible GT Concept car ditching almost every button and dial inside the cockpit in favour of voice controls.

The two-seater coupe, which was revealed ahead of the show kicking off in earnest tomorrow, makes the magic happen with a techy-sounding Human Machine Interface (HMI).

Basically, it means you’ll be able to control just about everything inside just by speaking – or shouting, depending how you cope with road rage.

It’s a self-learning system, so should pick up on your habits and adapt to the way you use the car – which means automatically choosing the right music, temperature and even route guidance based on the time of day.

Think how some cars can pre-heat the cabin using an app, only this is more like a robot butler making sure everything is perfect before you even switch on the ignition.

Cameras mounted at different angles around the car can constantly feed back info about other drivers on the road around you, with spoken warnings piped through the stereo when it picks up on any dangers.

There aren’t even any side door mirrors; it uses cameras mounted behind the front wheel arches to show what’s happening behind you, with video beamed to monitors on the left and right of the driver’s seat.

You don’t have to shout out voice commands, either; a round touchpad on the centre console can do everything your voice can.

Our favourite little detail? The two round instruments on the dash that double as backlit projection surfaces for showing things like speed, fuel consumption and even G-forces in three dimensions.

Naturally this is just a concept, and as much as we’d love to see something so sporty on the roads with a Vauxhall badge on it, there’s no news on whether this – or the voice-controlled cockpit – will ever make it to production.

About

A tech addict from about the age of three (seriously, he's got the VHS tapes to prove it), Tom's been writing about gadgets, games and everything in between for the past decade, with a slight diversion into the world of automotive in between. As Deputy Editor, Tom keeps the website ticking along, jam-packed with the hottest gadget news and reviews. When he's not on the road attending launch events, you can usually find him scouring the web for the latest news, to feed Stuff readers' insatiable appetite for tech.