Hyundai Shows Off Steering Wheel Touchpads in Virtual Cockpit Study

Modern cars seem to be adding more screens in more places. Infotainment, climate control, even the dash display. Now Hyundai is studying adding even more screens in a virtual cockpit that even puts digital displays on the delightfully 1980s-inspired steering wheel.

Hyundai calls it a study on the future of the car's cockpit. Putting the findings into an i30, or as we'd recognize it, the Elantra GT, the automaker says that there have already been four big phases in the company's cockpit development in just the last four years. Looking closely at the company's current offerings, as well as the competition, "Showed a broad variety and a substantial number of buttons," Hyundai said.

The goal was to clean up the interface, make it more intuitive, and reduce the number of buttons. In 2016, Hyundai removed all the hard keys and replaced them with touchpads. The company said that "Led to increased clarity and flexibility." 2017 added the flexibility of customizing the cockpit for two users and swapping the touchpads for displays. 2018 added haptic feedback, vibrations, then to the touch displays where we are now.

The steering wheel gets two large displays that have been ergonomically optimized. The virtual buttons are configurable for easier understanding by the driver, designed to deliver more consistent haptic feedback.

The other change is a new multi-layer display. Hyundai says that by stacking the two displays 6mm one behind the other, allowing for a 3D visual effect they say presents information that is more relevant and less distracting to the driver. Information displayed on the steering wheel changes depending on the situation and menu settings. The end user can also change the layout and add shortcuts to fit their needs.

Hyundai has put this wheel in a real car to test driver distraction. The automaker says that the new virtual cockpit is significantly below the limits of the globally acknowledged motor vehicle safety limits for driver distraction, even with more complex use cases.

Of course, the big chunky touch-wheel and 3D instruments are still in the prototype phase, but Hyundai plans to integrate what they've learned into future products. We find it encouraging that in their version of the car of tomorrow, there's still a manual gearbox.