BMW patent drawings show yoke-style steering wheel

BMW is designing an all-new steering wheel and related steering system that's unlike anything used in a car yet.

The design has been submitted for patent in China and Germany and gives an insight to how it works. The concept is something like the yoke-style steering wheel in the Tesla Model S Plaid, however, the handles completely fold away and the wheel seems to have limited movement.

The swivel handles are designed to fold away during autonomous driving when the car is driving itself and the human driver (at this point now a passenger) is not required to have hands on the wheel at all (nor be in a position to quickly take action, it seems).

6

Click through the gallery to see how the proposed system works

Due to current government regulation on driverless vehicles, it seems the wheel won't be used in any cars launching soon.

The patent drawings shown do not give much idea on exactly what it will look like, but it shows the central hub is the same as a traditional steering wheel with two spokes attached to opposite sides and grips at each end for the driver to hold. The spokes have joints that allow the grips to swivel as the wheel is moved and remain upright the whole time.

It seems like the steering wheel in the patent drawings is more of a 'part-time' wheel given there is restricted rotation in the steering column, which doesn't give a large amount of lock when turning the wheels.

6

Tesla's Model S Plaid yoke

In fact, the patent shows a normal steering wheel, however, there may be an electrically-assisted motor that has an on-the-fly variable ratio to increase and decrease the steering angle at the wheels – depending on circumstances such as parking compared to driving along a fast twisting road.

The steering wheel would also feel much different than a regular round or even squared-off steering wheel, given there is no grip to slip through the hand while turning. However, concept cars, and even Tesla's Model S Plaid, show that there should be no limit on car design including the steering wheel - just as long as it doesn't sacrifice function over form when required and, of course, is safe.