Honda is developing a fixed position steering wheel that senses the driver’s hands sliding rather than rotating to change the vehicle’s direction.
The wheel uses piezoelectric sensors to monitor pressure and movement as the driver’s grip and slide across its surface. The system interprets those movements and translates them into steering directions that turn the front wheels. Honda filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on December 11. In the filing, Honda cites reduced vehicle weight and simplified component packaging as some of the potential reasons it is developing the technology. Honda representatives did not respond to a request for comments on the patent filing.
But Honda isn’t the first automaker to tinker with steer-by-wire systems. The Infiniti Q50 currently uses one, though Nissan’s luxury brand still implements a rotating steering wheel.
Systems that don’t rely on traditional rack-and-pinion designs for turning allow vehicle engineers a greater degree of freedom in where they place vehicle components within a car. Systems like what Q50 uses and what Honda is developing will also play a significant role in large scale adoption of autonomous (self-driving) cars. Infiniti currently offers one of the automotive industry’s most advanced adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping systems that is capable of semi-autonomous highway driving.
Honda’s application also said in its filing that the fixed wheel could sit at an offset to its axis, reducing the likelihood that the driver’s view of the gauge cluster would be obstructed.
