Volkswagen Golf R Touch, Consumer electronics

It wasn’t so long ago that the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was reserved for computer geeks, keen to gen up on the latest gadgets and gizmos. All the big computer firms would be present, but you certainly wouldn’t see a motor manufacturer exhibiting, but the fast pace of technology means that this is no longer the case, and all kinds of companies queue up to show off their latest innovations, including car makers.

Volkswagen made a big splash, showing off a range of innovations, including the Golf R Touch concept car. Ignoring the fact that it’s powered by a petrol engine, the car introduces a large 12.8-inch touchscreen that dominates the dashboard of the Golf, as well as a largely switch-free cabin, with buttons and controls replaced by touchpads all around the interior. Gesture control is presented for the first time, where a simple hand action in front of the infotainment display can make changes, without having to physically press the touchscreen. The instrument cluster is configurable, similar to what has been seen in the Audi TT, and an eight-inch control centre, where you would normally have a storage area, takes care of the climate controls, media system and vehicle functions.

Everyday functions like opening the sunroof, for example, are operated quite easily, and the system senses when a hand is approaching the roof module. When the driver touches the surface, a menu will appear on the central touchscreen, offering a range of different settings. For instance, a swiping motion towards the windscreen will close the sunroof, while a swiping backwards action will mean that it will open. All of the actions are monitored by a 3D camera mounted in the roof, which constantly monitors the cabin for movement, but it’s clever enough so that it can differentiate between natural movement and someone wanting to make a change to the controls. To get the system to work, you’ll need to spread the fingers of your hand out, so it knows that you mean for it to react to your gestures, and the session can be ended by closing the fingers back up. This all sounds unnecessarily complicated, but will become second nature after a few hours of use.

Elsewhere, Volkswagen showed off its ‘trained parking’ system on an all-electric e-Golf, which allows the car to learn regular forward perpendicular parking manoeuvres for itself, meaning the driver can exit the car and let the vehicle autonomously park up all on its own. The driver can monitor what it is up to via a smartphone application. This is particularly helpful in tight parking spaces, where there isn’t enough space for the car door to open fully. And in the future, when inductive charging is introduced, the car can automatically recharge itself while parked.

Other innovations include the digital key, where a smartwatch or smartphone can be used to lock and unlock the vehicle, in place of a regular key. And later this year, Volkswagen plans to introduce CarPlay for Apple iPhones and Google Android Auto for smartphones that operate using Android software, opening up a whole range of new applications that can be used safely while on the move. It follows the introduction of MirrorLink on the Polo supermini last year.