Bad Steering Wheel Designs of the 21st Century
Bad Steering Wheel Designs
The steering wheel is the main connection between driver and car, so it’s important that it feels good to hold and provides a natural, unobtrusive way to communicate torque to the car’s chassis. Sadly, some designers have gone and ruined the best part of the driving experience by making their wheels ugly or uncomfortable to use. In fact, some have even designed wheels that aren’t safe to hold at all.
Over the past few years, Buy BMW steering wheels has been getting a lot of flak for its thick steering wheels. And those complaints aren’t without merit, as many owners have had to modify their BMW’s to remove some of their girth. BMW engineers seem to think that thicker wheels equal a sportier feel.
While the company hasn’t exactly been the only one to go overboard with this design, its latest designs have been particularly bad. It’s not just the size of the new M Sport steering wheel that makes it bad, but the shape of the wheel and the arrangement of its controls as well. The square shape means that drivers have to grip it low down, which isn’t ideal on twisty roads. Likewise, the arrangement of buttons on the wheel are just a little too confusing.
Bad Steering Wheel Designs of the 21st Century
As for the rest of the design, it’s a bit odd as well. Having the radio, phone and navigation controls on the same side of the wheel doesn’t really make any sense. In fact, it’s quite a bit more difficult to navigate than if those controls were located in different places on the steering wheel.
Another big problem with this wheel is the lack of a touchpad for your right thumb, which makes it hard to access certain functions while driving. It also doesn’t provide the same sort of tactile feedback that traditional steering wheel buttons give. It’s a shame that VW didn’t take customer feedback into account when designing this new steering wheel for its new electric ID.4 and ID Buzz models, because it’s not as enjoyable to use as the old one.
The other big issue here is the fact that the whole wheel is just too heavy. This makes it a little too stiff to hold and to turn, which can lead to wrist pain over long drives. It’s a shame because the concept of a capacitive touch steering wheel is actually pretty good, but it needs to be used in a way that’s both easy and intuitive for people to use. Hopefully, manufacturers will take more feedback into account when designing their next generation of steering wheels. After all, if you’re going to spend that much money on an electric car, you want to be sure that your steering wheel is as good as the rest of the interior. Right?