New Foldable Steering Wheel Shows Where Interiors Are Heading

CES loves shiny nonsense. This year’s “wait, what?” gadget might also be a real safety story. Autoliv (the folks who brought us the lap/sash seat belt) and Tensor say they built a foldable steering wheel for Tensor’s Robocar. It can retract when the vehicle runs in Level 4 autonomous mode. In plain English, the wheel can disappear when the car drives itself.

That sounds like sci-fi. It also points at a real problem. If the car does the driving, a fixed wheel can become wasted space. In a crash, it can also be something you hit.