Hyundai's New All-In-One Steering Wheel Makes The Yoke Look Like A Joke

Now Hyundai may have out-done them all. CarBuzz has just found its newest patent for a wheel that could be a yoke, handlebars, large or small, or folded up out of your way. It's a wheel for all seasons, at least in theory.

As Hyundai points out in the patent filing, when it comes to autonomous driving, "existing steering wheels take up a lot of space and are not helpful." To make wheels a little more helpful, Hyundai's engineers suggest that a wheel that can change or fold for autonomous modes would be a big benefit. The key is that they want everything to be easily changed, so that it's not a hassle for the person behind it.

There are certain parts of the design that can't really move. The airbag, for example, needs to stay front and center. The steering column behind it can only change so much, too.

So Hyundai instead looks at the handle of the wheel. The design in the patent treats it as two handles, and each one is mounted to devices that can rotate and slide inside a fixed mounting bar.

It gives the driver some interesting configuration options. The steering wheel handles can be fully extended, so the driver has a wheel approximately the same diameter as a standard one. The driver can also push the handles inward, for an experience more like an open-wheel race car's.

Great, More Settings For Your Mechanic To Mess Up
The handles can be rotated so the top tilts in if you prefer holding the wheel up high, or tilted out if you're a bottom holder. There are even extending components, so you can make the stubby steering wheel handles longer. To better complete the steering wheel circle.

While the design lets you fold the handles flat for autonomous operation, the steering wheel won't completely get out of your way. The mounting block remains in place, though it would be disengaged using a gear so that it's not swinging around when the car is doing the driving. That could be rough on your wrists, otherwise.

Hyundai Steering Wheel Patent fig 11
To make sure you still have steering wheel buttons, the patent mounts them to the center of the wheel instead of the spokes. Hyundai also suggests including an angle gauge, that we presume is to let you see at a glance where the wheels are in their rotation. Which, of course, feels like a solution to a problem that didn't exist before.

The patent idea is an interesting one. The ability to change your wheel for your preferences, while also making it easier to get in and out of the vehicle, seems worth having. A wheel that gets out of the way when the car is driving is also a key part of autonomous vehicles. We're just picturing all of the electric motors that you'd need inside the wheel – or a series of clamps you need to unscrew – in order to make it all work. That makes us long for the days when tech was a big deal, and not in every single thing we used.