Hyundai making a clutchless manual gearbox

South Korean Brand Hyundai has developed a manual gearbox that does not have a clutch pedal.

Dubbed the Intelligent Manual Transmission, or iMT, it's essentially a regular six-speed manual gearbox with an automated clutch. The gearbox can sense when the user is about to change gear, and instruct its control unit to hydraulically manipulate the clutch. As a safety measure, the system will ignore commands such as shifting from sixth gear to second at high speed.

Hyundai is currently offering the iMT only in India, as part of their 1.0 liter Venue subcompact SUV's powertrain.

It should be noted that the idea of a manual gearbox with an automated clutch is not new. Sweedish car maker SAAB devolved a smiler system for their cars in the late 1990s, called the Sensonic system. It was abandoned due to negative public reception.