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U.S. to decide soon on GM's request to deploy cars without steering wheels
(www.autoblog.com)
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this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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Back in the 80s or 90s GM (specifically Buick) teased a car with no steering wheel. It instead used joysticks. I’m curious if GM is basically thinking of that. Something more motor friendly, but joysticks also free up space for either more electronics (bad idea) or more safety equipment. The other thing people forget about is that a steering wheel is a giant spear aimed at drivers in a collision. We’ve gotten better about breakaway systems and shears, but it’s another point of injury and failure. The more enclosed a cabin the better. Anyways, all this to say that it might be that direction that GM is thinking and not a fully no input vehicle. It could also be a fleet based vehicle that only drives on main roads which effectively makes it a train that follows a “digital track” and doesn’t allow for nuance and is built for taxi service.
You just made me realize that we created a disconnect between the driver input and the car response on most thing except for the steering that for whatever reason is still a physical column down to the direction.
At this point electronic joystick and steerings are ancient in the PC gaming space, I don't see why that physical link is still required.
Infiniti on the Q50 released the first “direct adaptive steering” which was fancy marketing for steer by wire where no column was supposed to be present. This made it so consumers still had the same feeling, but it allowed for cool things like not having a rod aimed at your body, closed up another point of egress into the cabin for critters and water, and also gave you the ability to have it account for road undulations and wind so if you held the wheel straight even on a windy day it would adapt and steer straight. People however freaked out about steering not having a physical link and so Infiniti added in a column that would effectively reconnect if for some reason the steering ever stopped working. But it ruined the idea behind it. Anyways, consumers are kind of what holds us back. We all think of things having to be done a certain way without realizing there could be better ways of doing something. Side mounted joysticks, like a plane, would allow for people without legs for instance to drive cars. People with fine motor skills could be more precise and software could account for a shake in their hands.
A few companies are starting to experiment with brake by wire and throttle pedals haven’t been physically cable linked for decades at this point. Why do we still have steering wheels like that?
Not saying alternatives to steering are a bad thing, but there is also an issue of feedback and customer expectations. People like what they know/are used to. That’s why EVs had to add a lurch option and additional sounds. It throws people off mentally when part of the standard experience is missing.
Joysticks in theory would be an improvement, but let’s be honest you’d basically have to retrain people on how to drive it. Just a person gets additional training even to drive a forklift. And let’s be honest even if mandated not everyone would, and there would be wrecks. Not counting because of the learning curve it’d sell less, and it’d get bad press for every wreck.
I suspect the general consumer would be willing to hand control over fully, than have to spend extra to relearn how to drive their vehicle. We’ve been trained that self driving cars are the future for multiple decades now.