Yes, it is still round. But it provides increased functionality

By Gary S. Vasilash

Steering wheels have increasingly become not only the means by which drivers can aim their vehicles, but as a user interface for a variety of functions, from controlling the audio system to engaging cruise control.

Then there is the packaging for the airbag.

Oh, and the steering wheel still is the place where one honks the horn. (Something that is more apparent in, say, New York City.)

A new approach to the steering wheel has been concepted by ZF LIFETEC.

No, this isn’t something where the configuration is radically changed, as though someone is piloting an aircraft rather than an auto.

But there is a horizontal element that goes across the diameter of this concept steering wheel that is described as serving as a control for the “vehicle’s entertainment and assistance functions.”

It is a seamless surface with force-sensitive “buttons.”

The airbag?

It “deploys from the top side of the steering wheel through the upper steering wheel rim toward the driver.”

By this repositioning from where the airbag is typically located the designers and engineers are able to provide that horizontal section with a variety of functions, perhaps even at some point a central screen.