In this modern age, one full of technology and external stimulation, automakers are looking for the best way to prevent distracted driving. While Volvo was looking to in-car cameras, Jaguar-Land Rover is giving temperature controlled steering wheels a shot.
Dubbed the Sensory Steering Wheel, revealed on Wednesday, the system uses a series of heating and cooling elements to rapidly shift the temperature of the wheel. The main intention is to use this ability to instruct and retain focus in drivers, reducing distracted driving. The example given is that one side of the wheel could cool or heat to indicate the need to turn. The wheel can shift as much as 43 degrees Fahrenheit either direction.
Jaguar-Land Rover found that auditory and vibration based feedback proved too distracting to drivers, but that responded better to temperature based feedback.
More drivers will likely be interested in the system's secondary use: poor weather. During severe cold seasons, the wheel could heat itself to a more tolerable level. Alternatively, no longer would you have to deal with the scalding heat of a hot leather steering wheel. Not when you can rapidly cool it off.
The automaker had mused at the idea of adding this technology to gear shift paddles on self-driving cars, notifying drivers without hands-on-wheel contact.
Currently, Jaguar-Land Rover has no confirmed plans for implementing the idea in any current models. Though time will tell in the end.
Jaguar-Land Rover Reveals Rapid Heated/Cooled Steering Wheels
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Posted On: May 31, 2019 @ 01:03 PM