Stop Driving With Your Feet

I am driving a car that costs $5 million. I am heading toward a concrete barrier at 45 miles per hour. I can't find the brake pedal. Not good. But a moment before I wreck one of the most expensive cars in the world, I recall that nothing about this vehicle resembles the various clunkers, hot rods, and suburban wagons I've piloted for 32 years. I can't find the brake pedal because there are no pedals. The throttle and brake are built into the steering grips: twist to accelerate, squeeze to stop. There are no mirrors, no clutch, no stick to shift, no dashboard—not much, really, but four seats and a few simple controls. The interior is as cool and spare as a Finnish loft. But a moment before I wreck one of the most expensive cars in the world, I recall that nothing about this vehicle resembles the various clunkers, hot rods, and suburban wagons I've piloted for 32 years. I can't find the brake pedal because there are no pedals. The throttle and brake are built into the steering grips: twist to accelerate, squeeze to stop. There are no mirrors, no clutch, no stick to shift, no dashboard—not much, really, but four seats and a few simple controls. The interior is as cool and spare as a Finnish loft. I am driving the Hy-wire, General Motors's big-bet concept car, powered by hydrogen fuel cells, and as I squeeze the handlebar and avert disaster, I find myself warming up to the thing. Automobiles have not changed much in 100 years. The "three-box" configuration has remained essentially static since the Hupmobile: engine compartment, cab, and trunk, propelled by a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine and controlled by mechanical linkages. Even as the world's automakers inch toward incorporating hydrogen and fuel cells into their vehicles, old-style thinking reigns. Typically, manufacturers pop in a fuel-cell system where the engine used to be and install a compressed-hydrogen tank in the trunk, where the fuel tank used to be, and call it good. I have driven three such cars—one each from Toyota, Honda, and Ford—and can report that the experience is almost identical to piloting each company's gas-engine counterparts. In other words, zzzzzzz. Is the future just a Civic with lousy trunk space?