According to foreign media reports, at the BMW Owners Forum, it was said that German automaker BMW seems to be designing a foldable steering wheel for self-driving cars. The patent diagram shows that the steering wheel can be changed from a circle to a football shape (oval).
Obviously, the idea of this patent is that through this compact design, once the automatic driving system takes over the driving right, people sitting in the driver's seat can have more room for leg movement.
The following figure shows the steering wheel in a normal shape.
The following figure shows the folded steering wheel.
At present, there is no guarantee that this foldable BMW steering wheel will be put into mass production, because automakers usually apply for patents for technologies that may be used one day, but they may be put into mass production many years later or even eventually abandoned.
BMWX2forum, a BMW fan website that discovered this patented drawing, speculated that this revolutionary steering wheel may change its shape when it is in the driver's hand, and it can send warning information to the driver faster than voice or sound reminder, thus improving driving safety and reducing collision risk.
Of course, BMW is tight-lipped about the steering wheel and whether it will appear in the car. However, it shows some lateral thinking about future self-driving cars.
At the same time, there will be no fully automatic driving cars in the short term. The development of autonomous driving technology is put on the back burner, because global automakers are focusing on developing electric vehicles and more energy-efficient engines. Moreover, with the outbreak of global COVID-19, the closure of global automobile production bases or the postponement of production plans, the development plan of self-driving cars may be further postponed, so the cost of this technology is very high and the return is very low. Experts believe that, considering the complexity of this technology, it may take 10 to 20 years for the emergence of fully autonomous vehicles.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.