Ford's Sliding Steering Wheel Turns Your Car From Left-Hand Drive To Right-Hand Drive In Seconds

Ford's Sliding Steering Wheel Turns Your Car From Left-Hand Drive To Right-Hand Drive In Seconds

Ford wants to make getting in and out of its cars easier, regardless of your body type or abilities.

As a means of making ingress and egress simpler and easier, Ford is developing a steering wheel that can move in just about any direction, thereby turning the wheel into a self-adjusting motorized grab handle. CarBuzz discovered the patent at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and it describes how the technology would use cameras and other sensors to detect who will be driving the vehicle and how best to accommodate their particular needs with regard to getting into and out of the vehicle.

For example, a short person would need the grab handle to move lower than a tall individual would, and someone in a wheelchair would need the handle lower and angled more outward than either of these people.

Once the system detects who will be driving the car based on who is approaching the driver’s side door, it then evaluates their build in detail. This includes measuring the driver’s legs, arms, and torso. The system would also consider the individual’s gait to determine whether they may be suffering from some form of physical handicap, adjusting the support provided by the car when entering or exiting the cabin.

The steering wheel could lower and raise itself, turn toward or away from the driver as they enter, and adjust its angle of inclination relative to the dashboard. All of this could help one climb into the driver’s seat with greater ease, and once seated, the steering wheel would move to what it determines is an optimal position. Any adjustments made by that particular driver are stored in the system memory, and when exiting the car, the wheel can again figure out how best to support egress.

The patent also speaks of measuring even the bone structure of the individual’s arm to determine which steering wheel position would be safest and most comfortable for the user to operate the car with. All of these variations in steering wheel position would be made possible using various gears, but the most important piece of technology required for the Blue Oval’s latest idea to be realized is a steer-by-wire system like on the Tesla Cybertruck. As long as a physical connection remains between the steering wheel and the steering rack, a moving steering wheel is impossible to achieve.

That won’t take too long to perfect, and when it’s ready, it will make climbing into Ford’s behemoths much easier. Cars and trucks are bigger than ever, and that presents unique risks, but it also puts those of smaller stature at an inconvenience (the average American is only 5.6 feet tall, so this matters).

Sliding driver controls can also make the autonomous cars of the future more spacious, and perhaps someday, the differences between a lefthand-drive car and a righthand-drive one will be little more than software.