Oh, there have been attempts. Joystick controls, for example, in Mercedes concepts (F 200, SL R129 Concept, Vario Research car), or in actual farming vehicles. Recently, several automakers tried yokes. For now wheel is the cheapest (and simplest) way to make a car steer, we’ll see some funky shapes probably.
edit: also if steer-by-wire takes off, I imagine physical steering linkage would still be required. In that case it wouldn’t save money.
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Surely having a physical steering wheel is a requirement otherwise they’d have already innovated with driving solutions before now.
Oh, there have been attempts. Joystick controls, for example, in Mercedes concepts (F 200, SL R129 Concept, Vario Research car), or in actual farming vehicles. Recently, several automakers tried yokes. For now wheel is the cheapest (and simplest) way to make a car steer, we’ll see some funky shapes probably.
edit: also if steer-by-wire takes off, I imagine physical steering linkage would still be required. In that case it wouldn’t save money.
Joystick controls sound fun for like bumper cars
Saab also had a joystick prototype!