SEEMS NEARER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 248, 19 October 1937, Page 18

SEEMS NEARER.

PUSH-BUTTON MOTORS. REPLACING GEAR LEVER. NEW F.XGLISH MODEL? "Prcss-the button' , motoring is not far over tli*- , horizon, if a Coventry report just to hand is correct. Both in England and America, devices which replace tlie conventional pear lever are making substantial headway, and further important moves in this direction are predicted. Now, however, it look* Jin though England will gain a' substantial lead in the move toward* further automatic control. It was an F,ngli*h writer who lialfplnyfully envisioned the day when perforated strip maps would be fed into a slot on the instrument panel, pianolawise, which would relieve the motorist even of the necessity of steering his car; and. of course, the prospect of power being broadcast from regional stations, an<l picked up by receiver* on rond vehicles as a means of propelling them, luis been for years a favourite subject of speculation. Facts have a habit of catching up quickly with imagination these days, 'hie new model now reported ns likely to be announced to the public next spring, by one of the biggest English manufacturer*, certainly suggest* that they are hard on the trail. Described by the company's .chief engineer as "the simple, foolproof car

that the ii:<mechanically-ininde<l motoring public has been waiting for," the model—an otherwise orthodox 12 h.p. model job—has only one pedal, combining both braking and acceleration. This, it is claimed, has the merit of cutting out the time-lag which occurs when the driver move* his foot from accelerator to brake pedal—one of the biggest factors in considering the road safety problem. Downward movement of the pedal irwtantlv applies the brake*, which seems to imply that the speed of the car increases as the pedal is allowed to rise. In substitution for a gear lever, the car has a series of press buttons on top of the steering column. Xo. 1, operating an ele.-tric gear-box, engages first gear; two, three and four complete the range of pear ratios, the fifth m for neutral, and there is. of course, a reverse gear. Some reticence appears to have been shown in furnishing further details, but those are enough to whip up keen interest in prospects of the car's public appearance.—"Sunday Sun" (Sydney).