There is nothing straightforward about designing an automotive interior these days. You need comfortable seats, good ergonomics, and materials that don’t reflect lowest-bidder quality. But never before have designers had so many features and technologies competing for space on the instrument panel. The proliferation of larger screens could help manage it – or frustrate overwhelmed consumers.
As the redesigned 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 1500 pickup trucks reach customers in the coming weeks, we’ll find out if the General Motors design team hit the mark with its all-new user interface and infotainment platform.
Interface Designed For Minimal Tapping
At this week’s GM Forward media event in New York, the automaker focused on future technologies, like Level 4 autonomy and next-gen architectures for electric vehicles and high-power computing, but the new Silverado rolling off assembly lines got its moment in the spotlight, too. The goal was to create a new user interface that is simple, fast, and predictable, so drivers can find the functions they use most often without hunting through menus.
A vehicle’s infotainment system is among the top three considerations for consumers buying a new car, and Sebastian Bauer, GM’s head of human interface design, said in New York that every menu, icon, and interaction baked into the new Silverado was considered against one question: “Does this actually help the driver in that moment?”
Isn’t Such A Large Screen A Major Distraction?
GM doesn’t see the screen as a distraction, but rather, a better way to minimize it. Bauer said the new user experience “builds on what’s already familiar and instinctive, and pushes it further to make it even more personal and powerful.” The goal was for the new interface to be consistent, so the driver can always find things where they expect them to be. And you’ll find lots of hard buttons and physical switches to control volume, climate, and more.
“We didn’t set out to add more screen. We actually set out to take everything away from the screen that didn’t need to be there.”
–Sebastian Bauer, GM’s Head of Human Interface Design
Chevy Silverado product demos at GM Forward event NYC October 2026General Motors
And yet, between all the displays in the new Silverado, including one for the front-seat passenger, there’s more than 60 screen inches across the redesigned instrument panel. For those who prefer simplicity, there are trim levels that won’t get the passenger screen.
Silverado Doesn’t Get This Sierra Feature
The new instrument cluster will offer five different views, including a trailering aid, an off-road view, and a Super Cruise view of adjacent vehicles on the road and the logic behind an automatic lane change. Super Cruise will now have single-button activation on the steering wheel. There’s a new head-up display with critical info in the driver’s line of sight, and the center display will house navigation, media, smartphone connectivity, and vehicle controls.
Google Maps is fully built into the new screen, and the new gas trucks are compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The new central screen is customizable to be arranged however the driver wants it. When a phone call comes in, a small icon will appear on the new screen, rather than completely taking it over, like in the current trucks. The GMC Sierra also offers something the Silverado doesn’t: a pivoting central screen that reveals a hidden storage bin.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
Thankfully, the design team says the goal with so much screen space wasn’t to overwhelm drivers with content, but to give them access to what they need and arrange that content so it isn’t distracting. But we won’t know if the team succeeded until we drive the new Silverado, and whether a passenger screen makes any sense, even if it’s polarized so the driver can’t see it while moving.
Why passengers even need a “fully immersive” screen is a mystery, when people already use tablets and smartphones to watch what they want – unless GM’s goal is to monetize content accessed on the passenger side.
