PARENTS. You owe the kids an apology.
The PlayStation is not rotting their brain.
It’s actually preparing them for the future.
Just look at all the cars coming through with boost buttons and gaming graphics on the screens.
The next step is the steering wheel.
Peugeot has reinvented it.
It’s called Hypersquare and the yoof are going to love it because it’s exactly what they’re used to, a simulator-style controller that requires minimal inputs.
It looks cool too.
Don’t worry about Nana. She’ll be fine. She can stick with the traditional round steering wheel in her little Pug.
We’ve sampled Hypersquare twice now.
Once in a test mule, at all speeds and situations, like parking and swerving Lidl trollies.
Now in this £2million concept car which hints at the next 208 supermini.
Ah yes, the 208 is first in line to get Hypersquare in 2027 and it’ll be available in every new Peugeot model after that.
How does it work? Hypersquare uses faster-reacting steer-by-wire technology which has no mechanical connection to the front wheels.
Normal cars with a mechanical set-up have a 15-to-1 steering ratio. So, for every 15 degrees you turn the steering wheel, the front wheels turn one degree.
Hypersquare has a variable steering ratio that can go as low as 5-to-1.
So, for every five degrees you turn the wheel (sorry, I mean controller) at low speed, the front wheels turn one degree.
Three times quicker.
Full lock left or right is 170 degrees, compared to one-and-a-half full turns in a normal car, making parking simples.
You won’t get your hands tied up like a pretzel.
Clever stuff
At high speed, the steering ratio is much like a normal car. You won’t fall off the road when you sneeze.
You don’t feel vibrations through the controller when running over cobbles and small bumps. It filters them out.
But you do still feel the grip of the tyres when you lean on them. Clever stuff.
The system is too sensitive for my liking on 30mph-40mph roads. Too much body roll. Too reactive. But the engineers know that. They still have two years to finetune everything.
Another plus point. When the car is switched off, the controller straightens to zero and locks.
So you can use it as a grab handle to climb in and out.
‘What Peugeot is about’
Maybe Nana will like it after all.
When the car is switched on, the controller goes back to the position of the wheels.
Peugeot boss Alain Favey hopes that Hypersquare will become synonymous with the French firm, like quattro is to Audi.
He said: “It’s a way to express through innovation and technology what Peugeot is about.
“People who play computer games are quicker at being at ease with the system.”
As for the controller itself, the right-hand rings have buttons for audio and voice control. The left-hand rings are for driver assistance like cruise control.
Hold up. Where’s the boost button and flappy paddles for braking regen?
Maybe they’ll come later.
Steer-by-wire tech is already fitted in 200mph hypercars and Tesla’s Cybertruck.
Toyota, Mercedes and others are working on it too. But the French will put it in cars the PlayStation generation can afford.
Game on.
ASIDE from Hypersquare steering, what else can we expect from the next 208?
Butterfly doors? No. That’s a show car trick to show off the cabin. Swappable foam seats? Also no.
The overall size, at four metres, is about right and the “three-claw” horizontal lights will make the popular supermini instantly recognisable.
There’s a portable speaker between the front seats. Please try to make that happen.
