The insides of today’s cars carry a radically different style than they did 50 years ago—chrome and vinyl have been replaced by piano black plastic and Alcantara, for example—yet the core function of the interior has stayed the same: piloting the machine. The steering wheel and pedals haven’t changed much; they’re still positioned within easy reach of the driver and continue to take up a significant chunk of space.
Likewise, the same concessions are being made to the car’s traditional mechanical components. The transmission tunnel, a meaty divider between left and right, remains the most significant spatial compromise in many cars—forcing a rigid, inflexible cockpit layout.
In the coming autonomous age, all that will change. When the driver controls finally disappear, the car will pilot itself and rely on only the most basic of inputs from its occupants as they’re whisked away to wherever they ask it to go.
CT Automotive plc (LON:CTA) designs, develops and manufactures automotive interior finishes and complex kinematic assemblies for the most well-known automotive brands on the planet. These critical components are managed through an intricate global network of reactive supply chains to arrive JIT (Just in Time) at their respective OEM manufacturing plants.
