Driving the Hy-wire

GM's Larry Burns sees the alliance of fuel-cell and by-wire technologies as an essential element in the development of tomorrow's vehicles.

Larry Burns, General Motors Vice President of Research, Development and Planning, makes the statement with total assurance: “We believe that this vehicle is approaching the true reinvention of the automobile. We would like you to drive it.” The vehicle in question is GM's Hy-wire, a by-wire-controlled, fuel-cell-powered, advanced-technology demonstrator that has no foot pedals, an aircraft-style yoke instead of a steering wheel, and a spacious interior that takes simplicity to a new level. Burns, speaking in Monaco as GM prepared to allow a small number of journalists from the world's major publications to drive the Hy-wire, put the concept vehicle's monetary value at “something in excess of $5 million,” but in intellectual terms, this one-off engineering and design tour de force is priceless. “We have developed Hy-wire as a proof of concept; it is a statement of where the technology stands today,” said Burns. But it is also a pointer to the direction in which that technology could take the whole automotive industry tomorrow.

It took GM just eight months to develop Hy-wire in driveable form after its core features were revealed in the AUTOnomy concept vehicle from the 2002 North American International Auto Show. The result is a daring design that challenges many of the long-established beliefs of what the constituent parts of a car need to be.