David Gow
Forget the gearstick and bewildering array of switches and buttons you have scarcely mastered before buying a new model. The car of the future will come with a single joystick to activate Web-based data services; it will even talk to you and tell you where to go.
Within 10 years at most, the car will be so green that its hydrogen-powered engine will emit only water vapour and, in a hybrid version, deliver a consumption rate of two litres per 100km travelled.
“You will be able to programme everything with a single switch or joystick,” said Wolfgang Ziebart, BMW’s development director, “and see everything on an in-car screen. Your car will recognise your voice – and you can have a conversation with it, like talking to your partner.”
Ziebart and his team, in common with other manufacturers, is working on devices such as navigational finders which also allow the driver to pre-book at the opera, or a meal.
The new technology will be intuitive, and the steering wheel will remain in place for the foreseeable future to give a reassuring sense of control.
At the Geneva Motor Show manufacturers fell over themselves to present their new ecologically friendly engines to offset the soaring cost of petrol under the impact of rising oil prices – which hit $30 a barrel last month.
Fiat announced two refined versions of its ultra-compact Ecobasic car, one running on diesel and the other on a dual electric and petrol engine, which use less than three litres of fuel for every 100km.
Not to be outdone, Rick Wagoner, president of General Motors, announced a new fuel-cell vehicle based on the Zafira people carrier which has a range of 400km and a top speed of 140kph.
Elsewhere, responding to reporters’ questions at the show, Wagoner agreed that General Motors was “interested” in buying BMW but had seen no sign that the Quandt family, BMW’s main shareholder, was willing to sell.