Earlier this year, a competition held by Italy’s Auto & Design Magazine presented amateur designers and students with a bold challenge: shape the steering wheel of the future. The prize? The winner
earns the opportunity to spend a day with Ford engineers at the firm’s Cologne Design Center in Germany.
Jean-Thomas Mayer, a French design student, came up with this. And we’ve got to say, it ticks all the right boxes.
Mayer’s concept is simple: combine all of the features and functions of today’s cars and make them directly accessible on the steering wheel. But instead of providing set arrangements for all drivers, Mayer’s system would allow each driver to customize the interface to suit their needs.
Some contemporary systems allow similar customization, but none with such an emphasis on putting those features directly on the wheel. Dual touch screens display infotainment, phone, and driving information, which can be flicked through and interchanged without the operator’s hands leaving the wheel – not far off today’s smartphone arrangements.
Mayer explains that the vast interactivity of today’s cars begins to impede our habits behind the wheel. Allowing those interfaces to be customizable to suit any driver – in an arrangement that he or she is used to – would nonetheless provide a better user experience and promote safety.
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