GM Patents Steering Wheel That Changes Size, Shape and Texture

Corporations file patents for concepts on a regular basis, lots of which by no means see the sunshine of day. In plenty of circumstances, these dead-end proposals depend on applied sciences and ideas that aren’t totally fleshed out but, or just don’t exist. Nonetheless, the advantages are normally apparent — you don’t want the benefits of a self-healing windshield defined to you, for instance.

Typically, although, an organization stakes its declare to an concept that leaves you questioning not solely how, however why. Like one among Normal Motors’ newest patents, for a steering wheel that may develop and shrink and even change its texture to swimsuit the driving force’s desire.

This patent, unearthed final week by GM Authority, was filed in December of 2020 and granted earlier this month. The rationale expressed within the abstract is that an adaptive steering wheel can finest swimsuit a variety of distinctive driving situations. GM has envisioned a system to comprehend this, utilizing liquid- or gas-filled bladders. From the reasonably dry, technical rationalization within the patent application:

It’s an object of the current disclosure to offer a steering wheel for a car comprising: i) a hub tailored to be mounted on a steering column of a car; ii) a rim coupled to the hub; iii) a rim materials overlaying not less than part of the rim; iv) not less than one bladder disposed between the rim and the rim materials; v) a fluid pump configured to inflate and to deflate the not less than one bladder; and vi) a management module coupled to not less than one car sensor and configured to regulate the operation of the fluid pump.

The appliance additionally raises the thought of a system that may adapt to a “driver state or driver type,” presumably measured by sensors that may detect “hand measurement, hand location, grip power, galvanic pores and skin response, coronary heart fee, and physique temperature.”

Actually, there are conditions the place some folks would possibly desire a smaller or bigger rim. For spirited driving on again roads, the previous would possibly turn out to be useful. And if it may develop for the boring freeway a part of the journey, that’d be neat. The malleability of the wheel’s floor is probably the most attention-grabbing half to me, personally, as a result of I’ve a love-hate relationship with some upholsteries or finishes, like Alcantara. Certain — it appears to be like nice and, initially, feels good to the contact, however the materials makes my palms clammy.

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However is any of this actually obligatory? Wouldn’t it actually make driving all that simpler or extra fulfilling? I notice I’m preaching to the choir right here, and our little fanatic group is pre-disposed to spurn tech for tech’s sake — the form of digital overreach that struggles to justify itself, that appears to solely exist to provide companies new, costly, failure-prone issues to promote. Then again, I think about there might be extra particular accessibility-related circumstances the place somebody would possibly profit from a steering wheel that modifications its measurement, form and texture to accommodate a person’s wants.

I’m curious what you all suppose. If something, I’m shocked concepts like these are gestating someplace in GM’s headquarters, at a time when automakers are usually fantasizing concerning the demise of the steering wheel and, usually, bodily modes of management altogether.

Now if someone may simply design a nice steering wheel that doesn’t whiff out of the window whereas I’m driving, that will be a life-saver. It’s a good idea, and I stand by it.