Soon gesture-recognition systems, which will read the occupants' hand gestures in the empty air, will supersede touch screens and capacitive switches, avoiding, among other things, greasy fingerprints on the controls.
Touch sensing helps increase product lifetimes by eliminating mechanical wear and tear associated with buttons and switches, while minimizing system cost by saving an extra IC in the design.
All the important switches in the passenger compartment-except for the hazard flasher switch-are soft-touch components that have a similar feel to using a touchscreen.
Cadillac is also stepping forward with a dead-cool, iPhone-like capacitive-touch cockpit based around a large screen in the central console, situated above a set of artfully designed pressure switches for audio and climate that restate graphically the Cadillac chevron.