By Eric J. Savitz, editor-in-chief, GM News
Editor’s note: This story marks the launch of Retro Rides, a new GM News feature highlighting noteworthy vehicles from the long history of General Motors. Over more than a century, GM has produced a huge variety of cars, trucks, SUVs, vans, station wagons, and even buses, some fondly remembered and sought after by collectors, others largely forgotten but worthy of rediscovery. With Retro Rides, we’re going to cast a fresh spotlight on some of GM’s great design, engineering and technology ideas of the past. If there’s a GM vehicle you think we should revisit, feel free to reach out to us at news@gm.com.
The 1986 Buick Riviera had a feature that was dramatically ahead of its time: a touch-screen control center in the center of the console, the precursor of the kind of display now found in almost every modern vehicle.
Known as the Graphic Control Center, or GCC, this black screen with green text and tiny virtual buttons and sliders seemed inspired by a NASA workstation. The GCC controlled the radio (including a graphic equalizer) and the climate control system, while providing a trip computer, tachometer, diagnostics for brakes, electrical functions, and the powertrain, a calendar, and maintenance reminders. The GCC also had a semi-secret service mode to allow technicians to diagnose issues with the car.
Buttons and knobs? So…1985.
Alas, the GCC was not super popular, and although it appeared in a few additional models, including the short-lived Buick Reatta two-seater (which dubbed the computer the Electronic Control Center) and the Oldsmobile Trofeo (which had a color screen called the Visual Information Center), GM’s early dabbling with touchscreens ended within a few years of their debut. Their complexity, and the small size of the virtual buttons, made these early screens confusing to the average user, and tough to navigate while driving. One reviewer at the time wrote that the Riviera GCC was “meant to transform a trip to the 7-Eleven into a space odyssey.”
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But, c’mon. This was 1986. The same year William “Refrigerator” Perry and the Chicago Bears won Super Bowl XX. The top song was the maudlin “That’s What Friends Are For.” At that point, less than 10% of American households had a personal computer. The GCC was decades ahead of its time.
This was just one year after Microsoft launched the first edition of Windows as a graphical user interface for the widely used MS-DOS operating system for personal computers. Touch screens weren’t widely adopted for computing devices until Apple launched the iPhone in 2007. Apple unveiled the iPad in 2010. And modern LCD touchscreens weren’t widely adopted in vehicles until the early 2010s.
The ’86 Riviera was arguably just a footnote in the history of a storied nameplate. Buick had a 50-year romance with the Riviera, a luxury sedan named after the legendary French Riviera resort area along the Mediterranean coast. Buick first used the name Riviera in 1949, as a hardtop version of the Buick Roadmaster. While the Riviera designation was used for other cars over the next decade, it wasn’t until 1963 that the Buick Riviera was launched as a stand-alone model. The Riviera evolved over the next few decades, with the final production model rolled out in 1999. But the ’86 edition helped point the way to the touchscreen and computerized future of modern automobiles.
—Eric J. Savitz, editor-in-chief, GM News
Editor’s note: This story marks the launch of Retro Rides, a new GM News feature highlighting noteworthy vehicles from the long history of General Motors. Over more than a century, GM has produced a huge variety of cars, trucks, SUVs, vans, station wagons, and even buses, some fondly remembered and sought after by collectors, others largely forgotten but worthy of rediscovery. With Retro Rides, we’re going to cast a fresh spotlight on some of GM’s great design, engineering and technology ideas of the past. If there’s a GM vehicle you think we should revisit, feel free to reach out to us at news@gm.com.
The 1986 Buick Riviera had a feature that was dramatically ahead of its time: a touch-screen control center in the center of the console, the precursor of the kind of display now found in almost every modern vehicle.
Known as the Graphic Control Center, or GCC, this black screen with green text and tiny virtual buttons and sliders seemed inspired by a NASA workstation. The GCC controlled the radio (including a graphic equalizer) and the climate control system, while providing a trip computer, tachometer, diagnostics for brakes, electrical functions, and the powertrain, a calendar, and maintenance reminders. The GCC also had a semi-secret service mode to allow technicians to diagnose issues with the car.
Buttons and knobs? So…1985.
Alas, the GCC was not super popular, and although it appeared in a few additional models, including the short-lived Buick Reatta two-seater (which dubbed the computer the Electronic Control Center) and the Oldsmobile Trofeo (which had a color screen called the Visual Information Center), GM’s early dabbling with touchscreens ended within a few years of their debut. Their complexity, and the small size of the virtual buttons, made these early screens confusing to the average user, and tough to navigate while driving. One reviewer at the time wrote that the Riviera GCC was “meant to transform a trip to the 7-Eleven into a space odyssey.”
But, c’mon. This was 1986. The same year William “Refrigerator” Perry and the Chicago Bears won Super Bowl XX. The top song was the maudlin “That’s What Friends Are For.” At that point, less than 10% of American households had a personal computer. The GCC was decades ahead of its time.
This was just one year after Microsoft launched the first edition of Windows as a graphical user interface for the widely used MS-DOS operating system for personal computers. Touch screens weren’t widely adopted for computing devices until Apple launched the iPhone in 2007. Apple unveiled the iPad in 2010. And modern LCD touchscreens weren’t widely adopted in vehicles until the early 2010s.
The ’86 Riviera was arguably just a footnote in the history of a storied nameplate. Buick had a 50-year romance with the Riviera, a luxury sedan named after the legendary French Riviera resort area along the Mediterranean coast. Buick first used the name Riviera in 1949, as a hardtop version of the Buick Roadmaster. While the Riviera designation was used for other cars over the next decade, it wasn’t until 1963 that the Buick Riviera was launched as a stand-alone model. The Riviera evolved over the next few decades, with the final production model rolled out in 1999. But the ’86 edition helped point the way to the touchscreen and computerized future of modern automobiles.