The first week of January is the world’s most popular consumer electronics trade show (CES 2023) hosted. Car enthusiasts also had the chance to meet beautiful concept and mass production vehicles during the events. One of the things that caught our attention as the Webtekno team is that the cars were introduced they had steering wheels.

Maybe you noticed too; Introduced at CES 2023 Peugeot start, RAM 1500 revolution, Sony Honda Mobility Afeela and BMW i Vision Dee Cars like this didn’t have round steering wheels. Instead, the designers opted for octagonal and “butterfly” designs. It’s not a vacation, it’s not looking, Where do these strangely designed steering wheels come from??

Non-round steering wheels are not new. They even date back to the 1920s.

First car to use non-circular steering

The French car company Avions Voisin in the racing car “C6 Laboratoire” designed in 1923. uses square handlebar. According to the company, this design would improve the driver’s vision.

Avions Voisin’s design has not received much attention over the years. In the sixties, however, both Chevy as well as Plymouth, came out with cars with non-round steering wheels. Chevrolet favored non-circular steering wheel designs in the Testudo model, which did not go into mass production, and Plymouth in the Fury model, which it also sold to consumers. In 1970 this time the British manufacturer Leylandhad used the polygonal steering wheel design.

Chevrolet, Plymouth and Leyland thought just like Avions Voisin.

A non-round steering wheel was beneficial for both the road and the instrument display. The field of view was indeed enlarged. Also more for the driver. knee distance Remained. That meant extra comfort.

These reasons have been accepted and favored by some car manufacturers over the years. in the 2000s Lamborghini Gallardo and the square steering wheels seen in some high-end cars like the Audi RS 4 were favored in models like LaFerrari and Aston Martin DB11 in the 2010s.

If we go back to today, nothing has actually changed, those car designers their favorite designs. We see them giving life to vehicles. Some brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen prefer designs in the shape of the letter D and increase the distance between the knees.

There is an even more interesting situation with Tesla. The company opts for a design called the “butterfly”.

There is no upper part of the handlebar in this design. Making a U-turn is pure torture for the driver! Thankfully, the company has replaced the butterfly handlebars it offered as the only option for years. finally gave up. Consumers who wish, in the next process hoop on the steering wheel Tesla Model S and Model X will be able to choose.

As driving technologies evolve, the steering wheels will have more advanced structures. When that day comes, instead of round steering wheels, square or rectangular steering wheels will become more common.

At the start of our news; We said the Peugeot Inception has no steering wheel. The company developed this car, inspired by game consoles.hypersquareIt uses a system called “. The rectangular-looking handlebar is a tableting engineers allow the control of the vehicle to be managed through this section. As such technologies develop, it seems that the need for steering wheels will decrease and steering wheels will be supplied to consumers with different designs.

What happens when we reach the last point? The steering wheel will be buried in the dusty shelves of history!

Another auto company to take the stage at CES 2023 was Chrysler. Company, Synthesis introduced the cockpit named after him and did not include the steering wheel in this cockpit. The reason for this was the third level autonomous driving system. State-of-the-art AI would have eliminated the need for a steering wheel. Here are the steering wheels, which will very likely become completely dysfunctional when we get to those days. they will be buried in history…

• sources: car spoons, stellantis, Avion Voisin