Automotive

Push to accelerate, pull to brake? New steering yoke ditches pedals

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Stellantis Steering and controls yoke patent design
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Stellantis Steering and controls yoke patent design
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Stellantis Steering and controls yoke patent design
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Stellantis Steering and controls yoke patent design
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Stellantis Steering and controls yoke patent design
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Stellantis Steering and controls yoke patent design
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Stellantis Steering and controls yoke patent design
United States Patent and Trademark Office
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Stellantis has filed a patent for what appears to be a yoke-style steering-throttle-braking type of steering "wheel/control", similar to Tesla's approach to the steering-yoke, but deleting the foot controls altogether. Goodbye brake pedal, goodbye accelerator pedal.

Stellantis – the conglomerate parent company of Fiat, Chrysler, and the French PSA Group, which sells brands like Alfa, Dodge, Jeep, Peugeot and more – has filed a new patent design that appears to be an all-in-one solution to something seemingly not needing a solution for 99.999% of drivers on the road today.

Turn to turn, push to accelerate, pull to brake. No foot controls necessary.

The concept works perfectly in a three-dimensional space like when flying a plane. Push to dive, pull to climb, turn to bank ... but you still use pedals to control the yaw.

In a land vehicle, inertia could constitute a very real issue with pull to slow down and push to speed up. Crashes aside, just think of the last big speed bump you drove over at 7 mph (11 km/h) instead of 5 mph (8 km/h) like the sign warned you to. Or when your four-year-old in the car seat behind you starts kicking the back of your seat while you're driving.

On the surface, the concept seems very impractical and very much goes follows the "if it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is" line of thinking.

Stellantis Steering and controls yoke patent design
United States Patent and Trademark Office

On the other hand, those with lower body disabilities would benefit greatly from such a design. Those with quadriplegia or paraplegia who continue to drive have to install expensive or sophisticated hardware to control the foot pedals with their hands. Even double arm amputees that drive with only their feet could benefit from a complete yoke solution, keeping both feet on the wheel.

Or like a scene from the movie Demolition Man where "manually driving" is a foreign and dangerous concept reserved for emergencies where the norm is autonomous cars ferrying you to and fro, it could enable collapsible steering wheels that recess into the dash, giving drivers the freedom to do whatever it is one would do as a passenger in an autonomous car.

Theoretically, it could make for a great racing sim control where the driver is stationary and not affected by the real-world G-forces when turning, throttling, and braking.

Stellantis recently announced that all of its next-generation vehicles will be equipped with STLA AutoDrive, STLA Brain, and STLA (Smart) Cockpit. Autodrive being Stellantis' version of Tesla's Autopilot or Ford BlueCruise or GM Super Cruise.

Yves Bonnefont, Chief Software Officer of Stellantis, describes the foundation of any self driving vehicle is a centralized CPU that has access to all sensors and actuators, over-the-air capabilities, and the ability to control all software across all of the Stellantis brands uniformly. Something the STLA software suite will have.

Maybe the yoke will deflate and recess into the dash? We're excited to hurry up and wait to see if and how this technology is implemented going forward.

Note: Filing a patent doesn't mean that yoke controls will be put into place any time soon, or maybe ever. It does mean that Stellantis has the ability to do so if it so desires, and the auto group will own the rights to the designed technology laid out in the patent. However, history tells us that filing a patent is generally the path taken in the auto industry.

Source: United States Patent and Trademark Office via Carbuzz

View gallery - 6 images
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17 comments
Chase
I could see it being a benefit for x-aplegics, bit I can also see it being somebody that pushes against their steering wheel when they are startled panic-gunning the throttle and yeeting themselves and any unfortunates in front of them into low earth orbit.
paul314
Filing a patent can also be a way to prevent other people from doing things like what you've filed on, lest they get shut down for infringement.
FoFu
Terrible idea. What's the point.
vince
Whats next - a helmet that reads your brain and steers, accelerates and stops via our thoughts?
Bodger
Yeah. That'll do it. Of course when you have so many drivers simultaneously talking on their hand-held phone, putting on makeup and eating breakfast in the car while (semi)steering with their knee it might get a bit messy...
Both Works
Excellent for people with disabilities; Catastrophic for the rest. The whole purpose of splitting the decision making tree between speed and direction is to remove the single point of disaster/failure. Can't believe even "New Atlas" does not see that the post is as worthy as a CD photographed as a flying saucer.
JS
Vince,

"Whats next - a helmet that reads your brain and steers, accelerates and stops via our thoughts?"

That already exists. Check out "Paralyzed Man Drives NASCAR Car With Brain-Controlled Tech" on youtube.
itsKeef
? in the split second a potential impact is perceived by the driver the body assumes an instinctive 'brace' position. Legs, feet rigid against the brake pedal and arms much the same forcing the driver back into the seat. The whole concept seems odd, rather, pull against spring load to accelerate , release for automatic braking?
Now, if one is flying a plane the natural instinct (often not ideal AoA) is to pull up...avoiding 'unplanned decent into terrain'
Rusty
Ok, that's just silly. I've seen many people when faced with something jumping out in front of them, TENSE UP. They would push in or pull the steering wheel.
Just because you can "invent" something, doesn't mean it's better than what we have.
clay
WCPGW?