Simon Loasby, head of Hyundai's design center in Korea, is asking the right questions. As automakers begin to reorient interiors away from expansive screens and endless menus, designers and engineers must invent what comes next. For Hyundai, that's a future that the Concept Three previews.
'Then you start questioning, well, why do we need a screen? Not the other way around, not why do we need buttons? Why do we have a screen, and can't we do that in another way?'
Loasby added that customers are also "frustrated at having to look and go through layers, so how do we simplify?" Hyundai's Concept Three isn't devoid of all screens. There are a few clustered around the wheel, but they're small and intentional, with a row of buttons on the dash accompanying them.