What control/input methods have been attempted for driving cars and car-like machines (tractors, buggies, tanks, etc.) other than steering wheels? The steering wheel makes sense when you’re mechanically steering the drive wheels through shafts and gears, but in today’s power steering and drive-by-wire systems, have any alternatives been explored?
This is really just an idle question prompted by my search for a PC gaming steering wheel earlier this morning. There are a few racing games I’m mildly interested in, and they (obviously) aren’t great with a keyboard and mouse. I also tried an Xbox controller, but the thumb sticks are way too sensitive for steering. It just made me wonder what other form factors have been tried.
Joysticks? Gyros (like a Wiimote)? Trackballs? Yokes?
I’m curious about both video game control schemes and real-world vehicles, just all the various ways of controlling a wheel/tracked/etc. vehicle that moves around primarily on the ground in two dimensions. Is the steering wheel the dominant input method because it’s the best, or is it mainly there out of tradition?
Some of the earliest cars used tillers, but those proved to be less than ideal. IMO, a wheel may be the best tool for the job. It’s intuitive, takes up just a little space, and has a pretty short learning curve. Maybe it doesn’t have to be as big as modern steering wheels are - I know some pretty large watercraft have wheels not much bigger than a hockey puck. If my experience with gaming controls is any indication, joysticks and trackballs are a quick trip into a ditch, at least for me.
Tracked vehicles like tanks have sometimes used 2 levers for steering. Each lever controls the speed of a track and you turn by slowing one and speeding up the other. You can even put one in reverse and turn on the spot.
Many tracked vehicles are skid-steer. So the steering interface is two levers side by side that you push forward to drive the onside track forward, or pull back to drive the onside track aft. Moving the levers differently produces turning.
Twin-engined boats have similar controls with two combined shift/throttle levers. Lever straight-up is engine in neutral at idle. Push forward to engage transmission in forward drive in idle. Push farther forward to increase throttle. From straight up pull aft to engage transmission in reverse drive in idle. Pull farther aft to increase throttle.
At very low speeds like docking you often leave the steering wheel and rudder amidships and maneuver by differential throttle and transmission. Like a tracked vehicle, opposite thrust pretty well rotates the boat in place, net of a lot of details I’ll skip for brevity.
Most big airplanes steer on the ground with a small (~8" diameter) steering wheel that’s usually about 180 degrees from lock to lock. You grip it near the top when centered and from there can turn it ~90 degrees to either lock without needing to remove and reposition your grip. That’d be much too sensitive for high speed ops, so you also have two foot pedals which steer the nosewheel left or right through a narrow angular range (±10 degrees being typical).
Translating those control ideas to a car, the former would be good for parking and turns at intersections, while the latter would be for lane changes and all highway driving.
Arcimoto was an EV maker that built 3-wheel get-around-town “cars” (and has since collapsed). Their early models had a traditional steering wheel, but they switched to a motorcycle-like bar that simplified manufacturing, saved 500 pounds of weight, and shrunk the overall vehicle length by 20 inches.
Really interesting! Did it save space & weight because this was a direct mechanical linkage (rather than drive-by-wire) and the handlebars directly moved the steering system?
I read about something similar in the late 90s, maybe? One point they made then was that, if you mounted the joystick in the middle console of the car, it would work for both left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive countries, reducing the overall costs of manufacturing.
It also made it possible for the “passenger” side to take over the controls, in an emergency, or even if the “driver” just needed to do something for a minute - sneeze, eat something, clean their glasses, and the like.
Exactly. I remember reading lengthy blog posts at the time (~10 years ago) about the cascading effect of how changing to bar steering simplified one part, which simplified another, which meant another wasn’t needed, etc. But it looks like most of that info has since been purged.
D’oh. I completely forgot about that class of vehicle. Many 4-wheel ATVs use that same handlebar system. e.g.
Compared to an automobile, the ATVs generally have larger turning circles vs. their size. Said another way, the maximum steering angle you can get with handlebars on ATVs is less than you can get with the current typical automotive steering gear.
Any other fans of those Red Bull Soap Box races? For best, it’s a tossup between a wheel and handlebars. Levers and ropes are significantly less effective. The absolute worst I’ve seen are foot pedals that brake the wheels on one side or the other to steer.
Modern races cars like Formula 1 have a similar high ratio steering. Often a yoke and the driver never has to lift their hands off the wheel. A flick of the wrist and they can dodge a car they suddenly encounter. Of course we’re talking the world’s best drivers. Here is a recent video:
Speaking of tillers, 3 wheel golf carts used them through the 1960s. I have a 3 wheeler with a steering wheel and it is extremely maneuverable. I can quickly turn the front wheel so the cart will turn in its own length. I can also turn it so far it doesn’t self return. But the tiller models are very limited in turning as the tiller ends up so far to the side you can’t turn it any further.
Some steam tractors were steered using cranks but I guess this could be considered a variation of a steering wheel. Here is a video of a miniature steam tractor - notice the driver using the crank on the left side of the machine:
