Stellantis has patented a new yoke-style steering wheel design that will no longer require foot controls: you twist to turn, push to accelerate and pull to brake. In principle, a solution that most drivers do not need today.
Essentially, it’s like the controls on an airplane, where you push to go down, pull to go up, and turn to tilt. It works in the air or underwater because it’s a three-dimensional space… but in a land vehicle, inertia can be a problem – just imagine a child hitting the back of the seat while you’re driving.
It reminds us of solutions for people with lower limb disabilities who cannot use pedals, who have to install devices on the steering wheel to control the accelerator and brake. Or it could be used for a racing simulator where the driver is stationary and not affected by the real-world G-forces when turning, accelerating or braking.
Could there be something more behind this? If you have seen the movie Demolition Man You may recall that “driving manually” is a rare and dangerous action, reserved for emergencies. Most vehicles are autonomous, transporting you from one place to another. Such a design would allow for folding steering wheels that sink into the dashboard.
We say this because Stellantis recently announced that its next-generation vehicles will be equipped with STLA AutoDrive (its version of Tesla’s Autopilot or Ford’s BlueCruise). The STLA software suite will feature a centralized CPU with access to all sensors and actuators, wireless capabilities, and will control all software across all Stellantis brands.
And the basis of any autonomous vehicle is the software… could this steering wheel have something to do with it? We remember that registering a patent does not mean that it will be implemented, only that whoever registers it (Stellantis in this case) has the capacity to do so if they wish and will have the rights to the designed technology established in that patent. We will be attentive to what happens from now on.
