Drive by Joystick

Description

Offer a joystick to replace the steering wheel, the gear stick, the throttling and brake pedals, handbrake, the signals, lights, and horn buttons. The joystick can be connected to a port on the front center of each of the front seats, between the driver’s legs. it is leaned forward in its room as part of the seat, and when the driver wants to drive, they bring it upward.

Competitive/Pricing/Notes

This car should have an automatic gearshift system.

There’s currently no competitor. The Drive-by-joystick system has always seemed promising and future-like, but all the joystick concepts as of the date have been incomplete and not successful. but, far as you see, this design is almost conceptually complete and even much safer than the traditional steering system. My own evaluation of the pros and cons is:

Pros:

• There’s no steering wheel, gear handle, and handbrake in such a car, so there’s more room in there.
• One can drive with just one hand, no matter left or right. this is an ergonomic advantage.
• Any disabled person with just one hand can now drive like healthy people.
• There’s no difference between right-handed or left-handed people. the joystick is symmetrical and there’s no difference for the right or left hands.
• This system could be equally used in both left- or right-side driving countries, a joystick could be connected to either of the front seats, simply change your seat and drive at any side, no matter left or right.
• This mechanism is probably the simplest and safest ever so that nobody needs the training to drive. everybody, even the children, knows how to drive a car with this joystick system at first glance. forward, backward, sides, buttons.
• This system has an advantage for self-driving cars. currently, self-driving cars need mechanical controls for the driver and additional tools for the self-driving system to drive and control the car, but in this design, this is quite natural: the car is controlled via just one mechanical system, that is, some hydraulic arms and other means, which is commanded by the central command unit, which on its turn, can take orders from either the joystick or the self-driving algorithm.
• In this car, the driver just needs the joystick and doesn’t need direct access to the mechanical controls, like any steering wheel or any handle. the engine and all the hydraulic arms could be freely placed anywhere inside the body of the car, which gives an additional level of freedom to the design(s).

Cons:

• Controlling the throttling and turning together at the same time could be tricky and hard, especially in dangerous situations, when it’s needed to control the throttling and steering both sharply and independently of each other, the driver could mix. getting used to this needs some training.

Status

Moderator: Tesla has eliminated the gearshift and other stalks with the mid-year 2021 Model S/X.