As Tesla backs away from its steering yoke and Lexus strikes ahead with a model of its personal, a current Ferrari patent software hints at an much more radical steering system.

Revealed by the US Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) on Nov. 16 and initially filed on Might 8, the patent submitting in query describes a system for a controlling a automotive with two joysticks.

Ferrari joystick management system patent picture

A joystick could be positioned on both aspect of the motive force’s seat, and transferring them together would enable the motive force to regulate the course the automotive turns and the yaw angle—in different phrases, how sideways it will get. Acceleration and braking could possibly be managed by conventional pedals, or utilizing buttons or triggers mounted on the joysticks, in line with Ferrari.

Ferrari is just a little obscure on some great benefits of such a system however claims it’s technically possible. Joysticks are already used to regulate forklifts, Ferrari notes. What the automaker does not handle is a earlier try at joystick management. Saab truly constructed a prototype automotive with a joystick as a part of a European program geared toward bettering automotive security. The joystick proved troublesome to make use of, although, and was rapidly dropped.

Ferrari joystick management system patent picture

More moderen makes an attempt at steering-wheel options have centered on yokes, with Tesla putting in them within the Mannequin S and Mannequin X and Lexus making them a part of a brand new steer-by-wire system. Within the software, Ferrari dismisses the yoke as a purely stylistic selection as a result of it will possibly’t carry out its supposed perform in a automotive. Yokes are usually utilized in plane, the place they are often pushed ahead or backward to regulate pitch. That is the angle of the nostril in relation to the bottom—one thing that is not supposed to vary in a automotive.

But whereas it is unclear if Ferrari’s joystick management system will ever see manufacturing, Lexus is transferring forward with its steering yoke. It is launching within the Lexus RZ 450e electrical crossover, though it is not out there within the U.S. for now.