Google Gets It Wrong Again

In the era of de-contenting cars we expect to see side-mounted rearview mirrors and door handles go away along with keyfobs, standard transmissions and internal combustion engines. Okay maybe losing the internal combustion engine will take a little more time, but then so will losing the steering wheel, which is where Google has goofed up again.

There are some things about the automotive industry that Google just doesn’t get and one of those is the fact that some of us, in fact most of us, are perfectly happy driving our cars. Some of us even thrive on the driving experience – love it. For Google? Driving is a distraction – a distraction from Google.

So when Google shifted gears earlier this year and re-stated its autonomous driving objective as a car without gas or brake pedals and no steering wheel, the industry took notice. But almost simultaneously the industry shook its collective head and said: “No, Google, we’re not going there with you. You’ve gone too far.”

The reaction consisted of two parts. The first part is pervasive skepticism that a pedal-less, steering wheel-less car is practical, possible or attractive to anyone or for any application. It is hard to overstate the case here. When Google stated its intention of bringing a steering wheel-less car to the market the irresistible juggernaut of Google’s autonomous car program collapsed like a novelty fart bag – pfffft!

The second part is the fact that the driving experience is in the midst of a major revolution and the steering wheel is very much a part of that. Driving is about to become safer, easier and more exciting thanks to leading automotive innovators.

A growing roster of companies is looking to the steering wheel for a wide range of applications from driver monitoring to human machine interfacing. Companies like Neusoft are adding biometric content to steering wheels to monitor the health of drivers, while Seeing Machines is working with Takata to add its driver monitoring tech to steering wheels for everything from commercial vehicle applications to self-driving cars from companies such as General Motors.

But maybe the most compelling vision is coming from Neonode in Stockholm, Sweden, which is using low-cost, LED-based “multi-sensing” interfaces to HMI-enable steering wheels. Neonode is best known for bringing capacitive-touch-like functionality to non-touch displays such as the Sensus system from Volvo. But the company is working to touch enable a much broader range of surfaces – including surfaces throughout the vehicle cabin and for keyless access to the car – enabling a wider range of gesture recognition applications.

Neonode’s vision is not only changing the concept of keyless entry – in the future to include raising or lowering windows or maybe starting the car with gestures – but also the process of interfacing with all manner of in-vehicle systems. In fact, a Neonode-enhanced steering wheel combined with a head-up display will obviate the need for hardware controllers (bye-bye BMW iDrive and Audi MMI) and greatly mitigate the need to glance away from the road.

In fact, the more you think about it, it just makes senses – which happens to be the company’s marketing slogan. Putting interfaces and touch-enabled displays on steering wheels resolves a multitude of challenges including driver distraction and lefty/right issues. And this is aside from the fact that systems for entering and recognizing kanji - used in the biggest and fastest growing automotive market in the world - are best mounted on the steering wheel not only to resolve the lefty-righty issue but to keep eyes on the road.

So, to recap, implementation of Neonode’s multi-sensing system products throughout a car will allow for the replacement of the capacitive touch display with a touch enabled non-touch display, deletion of the hardware controller, significant alteration (if not deletion) of the door handle, replacement of the keyfob (with a key card?) and enhancement of the steering wheel for a variety of new purposes – all intended to enhance the driver’s focus on the road.

Are we ready for Neonode’s vision of turning displays – or any other surface – into interfaces? It makes a lot more sense than removing the steering wheel. If you are attending the CES show, you’ll want to check out what they have on offer. See you there.