U-M's Breathing Steering Wheel: Creepy but Communicative

The Drive reports that researchers at the University of Michigan, working with the Toyota Research Institute, have built and tested a steering wheel lined with air sacs. The sacs inflate and deflate to pass information between the car's semi-autonomous system and the driver. It looks like the wheel is breathing, which is a little unsettling, but it might solve a real problem.

The Problem With Sharing Control

Semi-autonomous driving systems need a human who stays alert, but sharing control can get confusing. When the car and the driver disagree, the fight for the wheel can end badly. Current systems warn with lights and chimes, but that's one-way communication. The driver can either let the system do its thing or intervene hard enough to shut it off, like pressing the brake pedal.

How the Breathing Wheel Works

The Michigan team placed what they call "haptic zones" at the 10 and 2 o'clock positions, where drivers normally hold the wheel. If the system wants to steer left, the sacs on the left inflate. If the driver doesn't want that, they can press down to deflate them. And if the system still thinks left is the right move, it sends pulses of air you can feel. That lets the driver and the system negotiate instead of fight.

What the Testing Found

In a simulator test, drivers had to navigate turns with unexpected obstacles. According to the study, published by the research team and covered by The Drive, drivers spent less time wrestling with the driver-assist tech, braked less, and felt more confident. They also reported lower effort, frustration, and physical demand, per a University of Michigan press release. Researchers saw that drivers were more likely to trust the system again after it made a mistake, though sometimes they got too trusting.

Another Way to Handle It

The Drive notes that Mercedes' new MB.Drive Assist Pro system takes a simpler approach. It accepts control inputs like a tug on the wheel or a tap on the brake without fully disengaging. That avoids dedicated hardware like breathing sacs, and it might be less creepy.

What It Means for You

Two-way communication makes sense if we're going to share the road with automated systems. Whether it needs its own breathing hardware is an open question. For now, this is a research project, not something coming to a dealership near you. But it's a reminder that the way we talk to our cars is changing, even if the conversation gets a little odd.

• driver assistance
• research
• semi-autonomous
• steering wheel
• Toyota Research Institute
• University of Michigan