• News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
  • News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
Sign up Now (For Free)

Sign up for our newsletter and receive the latest automotive news in your inbox!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thanks for subscribing!
News
Read Now
  • All News
  • Automakers
  • Automobiles
  • Auto Shows
  • Business
  • EVs & Environment
  • Guides
  • Lawsuits/Legal
  • Regulatory
  • Ride-Sharing
  • Safety & Recalls
  • Technology
Recent
  • The Rearview Mirror: "A Path Filled With Hardships"
  • Q&A: Volvo CEO Jim Rowan Talks Hitting Targets, Future Vehicles
  • FIA’s Formula E is Changing the Way We Look at Racing
  • Lexus Lifts the Covers Off New, Three-Row TX SUV
  • First Look: 2024 Lexus GX
  • GM Investing $500M in Texas Plant for Gas-Powered SUVs
  • New Battery Chemistry Promises Increased Range, Cell Life
  • Labor Unrest at West Coast Ports Threatens U.S. Automakers
  • Used Car Wholesale Prices Decline; Retail Prices Don't
  • Pandemic Accelerated Auto Dealers’ Shift to Digital-Oriented Sales Process
Editor’s Choice
    Reviews
    Read Now
    • All Reviews
      • Feeder
    • Classic Cars
    • Concept Cars
    • Convertibles
    • Coupes
    • Crossovers/CUVs
    • Diesel
    • Hot hatches
    • Hybrids
    • Luxury Vehicles
    • Minivans
    • Muscle Cars
    • Pickups
    • Sedans
    • Sports Cars
    • Super Cars
    • SUVs
    Recent Reviews
    • A Week With: 2024 Chevrolet Trax Activ
    • A Week With: 2024 GMC Sierra 2500 Denali Ultimate
    • A Week With: 2023 Volkswagen Golf GTI 2.0 SE
    • A Week With: 2023 Kia Niro SX Touring
    • A Week With: 2023 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Estrema Q4
    • A Week With: 2023 Lexus NX 350h Luxury
    • A Week With: 2023 Volkswagen Tiguan SEL R-Line
    • First Drive: 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander
    • A Week With: 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E Premium RWD
    • A Week With: 2023 Electrified GV70 AWD Prestige
    Editor’s Choice
      Guides
      Car Warranty
      • Endurance Warranty Reviews
      • BMW Extended Warranty
      • Extended Warranty For Cars Over 100k Miles
      • Extended Car Warranty Cost
      • Subaru Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Reviews
      • CarShield Cost
      • Aftermarket Car Warranty
      • CARCHEX Warranty Reviews
      • Reputable Extended Car Warranty Companies
      • Used Car Warranty Companies
      • Best Car Warranty
      • Is CarShield A Scam?
      • Mercedes Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Plans
      Insurance
      • How To Identify A Car Insurance Company
      • Geico Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • How Far Back Does A Car Insurance Company Look
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance For Used Cars
      • State Farm Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance From Progressive
      • Dollar A Day Insurance
      • Auto Insurance For SSI Recipients
      • Car Insurance Rates After A Suspended License
      • Auto Insurance For Salvage Vehicles
      • Average Cost of Dodge Ram 1500 Car Insurance
      • Car Insurance Florida
      • Full Coverage Auto Insurance
      • GrubHub Insurance
      • Amazon Delivery Auto Insurance
      Shipping
      • Car Shipping Companies
      • uShip Reviews
      • Auto Shipping From California To Hawaii
      • Montway Auto Transport Reviews
      • Cheap Car Shipping
      • Easy Auto Ship Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Miami
      • Auto Shipping To Alaska
      • Car Shipping Cost
      • Auto Shipping Hawaii
      • Auto Shipping Puerto Rico
      • Sherpa Auto Transport Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Atlanta
      • Auto Shipping Boston
      • Auto Shipping. Chicago
      About
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • Affiliate Disclosure
      • Sitemap
      TheDetroitBureau.com

      More than just “another” place to find news, reviews, spy shots, commentary, features, and guides about the auto industry. TheDetroitBureau doesn’t stop with the press releases or confuse a few lines of opinion with insightful, in-depth reporting.

      Contact Us

      Like what you see? Have some ideas for making The Detroit Bureau.com even better? Let us know, we’d love to hear your voice.

        Media
        Listen Now
        • Headlight News: All Episodes
        More from TheDetroitBureau
        • Guides
        • Latest News
        • Auto Reviews
        • Podcasts
        Headlight News

        TheDetroitBureau.com’s Headlight News offers a look at the past week’s top automotive news stories, as well as what’s coming up in the week ahead. Check out the week’s top story and our latest review…along with a dive into the past with this week in automotive history.

        home > news > Automobiles > Ford Patent Shows How Autonomous Car’s Steering Wheel, Pedals Could Fold Away

        Ford Patent Shows How Autonomous Car’s Steering Wheel, Pedals Could Fold Away

        Design would allow manual driving or completely driverless operation.

        Paul A. Eisenstein
        Paul A. Eisenstein , Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
        Aug. 18, 2017
        A patent application illustration shows how Ford would hide the controls in driverless mode.

        Autonomous vehicles, we’re regularly told, are just around the corner, and fully driverless vehicles will soon follow. Ford, for one, has said it hopes to remove the driver from the picture entirely by 2021.

        Now, a patent granted Ford this month reveals that the self-driving cars Ford is working on could give an owner the option to choose which mode it will operate in. Push a button and the steering wheel and pedals fold up and out of sight. Push again and they reappear, allowing manual driving.

        Stay in the Loop!

        That option may be essential, at least initially, as autonomous vehicle experts warn that coming up with a vehicle that can operate without a driver on all roads and under all conditions, may take years to develop, despite the optimistic prognostications of automakers like Ford, Daimler, Nissan and tech companies such as Google spin-off Waymo.

        (Ford planning wave of new products, says new CEO. Click Here for the story.)

        The first semi-autonomous vehicles are already on the road, and the level of technical sophistication is increasing rapidly. The latest version of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, for example, allows not only brief, hands-off driving on limited-access roads, but a motorist can execute a pass simply by tapping the turn signals.

        With the steering wheel hidden, a separate airbag would deploy out of the instrument panel.

        By the early part of the coming decade, so-called Level 3 systems should be available from a number of manufacturers. They’ll allow hands-free driving in a wide range of conditions, but an “operator” will have to remain behind the wheel, ready to take control in an emergency.

        Not everyone believes that’s an effective solution, however. Having a driver sit behind the wheel, waiting to take over in an emergency is actually a dangerous solution, Ford’s global product chief Raj Nair told TheDetroitBureau.com last year, because, over time, “You lose driver awareness. You lose the ability for a human to respond in a timely manner.”

        So, Ford is skipping what Nair called the “step-by-step incremental process,” and plans to go directly to truly driverless technology, what industry types refer to as Levels 4 and 5 autonomy.

        The lower level would allow completely hands-free operation under a wide range of circumstances. But there may be so-called “geo-fencing,” where a human would need to take control, such as in areas of extreme traffic density or, perhaps, on poorly mapped roads. And the driver might also have to take over in bad weather, such as a white-out in a snowstorm.

        Level 5 autonomy is the ultimate target and would mean that a human driver would never have to intervene – though there might be circumstances where they could take control if they wanted.

        The pedals would also fold away.

        The Ford patent, first uncovered by Motor1 and issued to the automaker on August 10 of this year, would make it easy to convert from Level 4 or 5 autonomy to hands-on operation.

        One of the advantages of high-level autonomy would be transforming the interior of a vehicle into a mobile lounge or office. A driver might swivel around, for example, to face back-seat occupants or to work at a built-in desk. So, in fully autonomous mode, Ford’s concept shows a way in which the steering wheel and pedals would completely retract beneath a cover with a “pleasing appearance,” according to the patent application. For manual operation that would return to their traditional positions.

        The patent addresses the issue of what to do with the vehicle’s airbag. With the controls out, the driver’s bag would pop out of the center of the steering wheel, just as with today’s vehicles. In driverless mode, however, that bag would be disabled and a separate bag in the instrument panel would be deployed, much like on the front passenger’s side.

        (FCA, BMW, Intel, Mobileye team up to jointly develop autonomous vehicles. Click Here for the full story.)

        The interior of the Rinspeed Etos, the engineering concept also using foldaway controls.

        Ford’s original patent application, filed in February 2016, attempted to address a second problem, as well. “The lack of a steering wheel can handicap vehicle development by making it more difficult to place a vehicle under a driver’s control” to test how it would operate in “extreme dynamic maneuvers such as rapid lane changes.”

        It appears that Ford’s solution would allow for both fully drive-by-wire electronic controls or permit a mechanical linkage between the steering wheel and the front wheels.

        How Americans will accept the idea of fully driverless vehicles is uncertain. Surveys of the motoring public have yielded often conflicting responses. The ability to choose whether to relinquish or take control could broaden the appeal of future models.

        Ford isn’t the only company thinking about ways to give drivers that choice, incidentally. Several recent concept vehicles, including the Rinspeed Etos and Nissan IDS also have introduced the concept of retractable controls. And since future vehicles are quite likely to go to fully drive-by-wire capabilities, some concepts have also introduced the idea that controls could be moved to either seat, so anyone up front could drive.

        (Toyota, Intel team up for “big data” consortium. Click Here for more.)

        Waymo, the Google spin-off has built some of its little bubble cars without controls, as well. That approach is likely to be used most extensively for ride-sharing services, like Uber and Lyft, where there would be no need for a driver.

        How to Care for Your Car

        Cheap Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice

        Best Extended Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice
        Recently Published

        The Rearview Mirror: “A Path Filled With Hardships”

        Today
        FIA Formula E 2023 Jakarta teams on track REL

        FIA’s Formula E is Changing the Way We Look at Racing

        Yesterday
        2024 Lexus TX - debut front 3-4

        Lexus Lifts the Covers Off New, Three-Row TX SUV

        Yesterday

        Leave a Reply Cancel reply

        Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

        Share this article:
        © The Detroit Bureau 2023
        • Guides
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms of Use
        • Affiliate Disclosure
        • Contact Us
        • Sitemap
        Follow Us: