Latest idea from Apple: an in-car remote
Apple has filed a patent for an iPod-like clickwheel mounted on the steering wheel. In-car remote would let drivers change songs, playlists, or Internet radio stations.
Apple has filed a patent for an iPod-like clickwheel mounted on the steering wheel. In-car remote would let drivers change songs, playlists, or Internet radio stations.
When it comes to hands-free infotainment solutions, automakers aren鈥檛 the only ones looking to make both聽the government聽and consumers happy. Now Apple has joined the fray, with a novel approach to adding steering-wheel-mounted controls.
As the diagram shows, Apple鈥檚 solution is a steering-wheel mounted clickwheel (as used on the iPod Classic), which can be used to control other Apple devices, such as聽an iPad, iPod or iPhone.
The patent filing was revealed by聽Patently Apple, a website dedicated to Apple鈥檚 鈥渟pirit of innovation.鈥� Use of the steering-wheel-mounted remote control would allow drivers to change songs, playlists or internet radio stations without taking their eyes off the road, which few would argue is a good thing.
The remote would be powered by a button-style battery, and its clip-on base would accommodate a variety of steering wheel rim widths. There鈥檚 no provision to mount it to the center of the steering wheel, likely because doing so would potentially cause injury in an airbag deployment.
To account for individual preferences on mounting position, the controller face can be rotated so that the menu button is always on top, the play button is always on the bottom, rewind is always to the left and fast forward is always to the right.
It鈥檚 worth noting that a patent filing doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean a product will be built, so there鈥檚 no way to know if Apple is actually pursuing development. We wouldn鈥檛 put anything in our own cars that could potentially interfere with steering wheel operation, but we can certainly see the appeal for others.聽