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Alexandra Lawrence28 May 2020
NEWS

Bentley to pack away the steering wheel

British manufacturer files patent for retractable steering wheel in future autonomous vehicles

Bentley has filed a UK design patent for a completely rehashed cabin layout including a ‘laterally stowable’ steering wheel that folds out of the driver’s door.

Uncovered by Cybertrucktalk.com, the patent filing says the design is applicable to an autonomous vehicle – presumably in a future where full Level 5 driverless vehicles are legal and commonplace.

Bentley – which is expected to produce its first EV, which could also be autonomous, in the form of a high-riding crossover in 2025 – says the need for a steering wheel only some of the time frees up valuable interior real estate.

According to the document, the steering system unfolds from a pod-like pocket in the driver’s door and has retractable steering grips with a trigger function that act as the accelerator and brake.

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Bentley says the design allows “for greater freedom in configuring the interior cabin to make the best possible use of the available space”.

That includes having seats (the driver’s included) that can swivel 360-degrees, so passengers can interact while the car drives itself.

While the Bentley ‘steering wheel’ is designed for autonomous driving, manual controls are still a requirement for times when autonomous driving is not available or not desired.

But if it’s not a conventional steering wheel connected to a conventional steering rack with arms and linkages, how does it work, you ask?

In short, as detailed in the patent, Bentley says a drive-by-wire system will comprise a number of input sensors on the manual steering wheel control, which send signals to the Electronic Control Unit (ECU).

Interestingly, the Bentley patent won’t negate the need to produce cars in both left- and right-hand drive, and we wonder how quickly the system retracts when you exit the vehicle.

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