Spy Shot: Production interior of Chevy Volt (maybe)
by AutoblogGreen Staff on Aug 28th 2008 at 5:01PM 
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General Motors continues to eek out teaser shots of the production Chevy Volt, but it appears that an image of the production interior has slipped through the Empire's net of control. All we have to go on for this image posted on the Motivemag.com forums is the image itself, which is part of a display panel at what appears to be a sneak preview of the vehicle for god knows who. What we see is a sleek, all-white center console with virtually no buttons. The controls appear to be touch sensitive instead, leaving the face of the console as smooth as a Frigidaire. Good luck installing an aftermarket stereo in this one. Completely flush air vents flank the console, which stands out in contrast to the black dash panel. On top of it all sits the information display, seen here showing the relationship between the "range extending" engine and lithium-ion batteries. What say you? We all know the production Volt isn't going to be as wild as the concept, but does this innovative center console meet your expectations? Also keep in mind that this might not be the real deal, but it seems to be from all appearances. Thanks for the tip, Brandon!
[Source: Motivemag.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris 5:25PM (8/28/2008)
Looks like they went in with Apple and made an iConsole... I guess since Ford has Sync by Microsoft this wouldn't be too far a stretch.
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Jameson 5:58PM (8/28/2008)
The guy in the ABC story about the Volt a few weeks ago did say "if you're a fan of Apple you're going to like this car." Although it doesn't match the clay model with the touchscreen they showed a few seconds later.
I like it better than having all the HVAC controls buried in a touchscreen display like the Prius. Although I'm not a huge fan of having it all white.
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jason 10:53PM (8/28/2008)
This is a horribly unusable layout; I hope that GM does some user testing to discover this before it goes to production.
Here's why:
Have you ever tried to use the touch screen on your Garmin or TomTom GPS unit while driving? It's nearly impossible to keep your finger steady enough to touch the button you intend to push while your car is bumping along (granted I drive a sports car with stiff suspension). I think the same problem will exist with capacitive buttons.
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Christopher Price 7:14AM (8/29/2008)
As I noted on Engadget, there are actually two competing versions of the Volt interior. I think that the other one that AutoblogGreen forgot to picture... looks much, much better than the one above.
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Christopher Price 7:19AM (8/29/2008)
Also, here's a link which shows the rival interior (scroll down to the bottom of the article):
http://gm-volt.com/2008/08/28/chevy-volt-interior-picture-leak/
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Whopper 10:50AM (8/29/2008)
Touch screens and capacitive buttons have no place in vehicles. Anything that requires you to take your eyes from the road interfers with the act of DRIVING. You should be able to operate the Heater/AC or radio by feel and knowing where the buttons are.
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James Bowe 10:21AM (8/29/2008)
Touch panels can be crazy irritating. It looks cool, but you can't do anything no-look on a touch panel. And that's pretty annoying/dangerous while driving. Do you look for the volume knob on your stereo? No, you just reach out and grab it. Flush buttons or scroll wheels would be a much better option. Plus how much does it cost to replace the ENTIRE panel when some of the 'buttons' start crapping out? I'm on my 4th chocolate in the last 20 months as this keeps happening to it...
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