Attitude controlling device for a steering wheel

An attitude controlling device for a steering wheel comprising:

• a steering wheel attitude setting mechanism including a telescoping mechanism for positioning a steering wheel in the upward or downward direction along an axis of its inclination and a tilting mechanism for setting the inclination of said steering wheel;
• a steering wheel driving means, coupled to both telescoping and tilting mechanism of said steering wheel attitude setting mechanism;
• a position detecting means including a disc coupled to a rotating shaft of a motor in said steering wheel driving means and a detector for generating a pulse signal in accordance with a rotation of said disc;
• a first attitude change instructing switch means for instructing a change in the vertical position of said steering wheel;
• a second attitude change instructing switch means for instructing a change in the inclination of said steering wheel;
• a storage instructing switch means for instructing the storage of attitude information relating to the vertical position and inclination of said steering wheel;
• and
• an electronic control device for storing the vertical position and inclination data in a memory in response to the actuation of said storage instructing switch means, for energizing said steering wheel driving means to away position in response to at least one of (a) the opening of a door associated with a driver's seat, (b) the turning off of a power switch by an engine key, and (c) the actuation of manually operated AWAY switch, and for energizing said steering wheel driving means to driving position indicated by the stored attitude information in response to at least on of (a) the unlocking of the door associated with the driver's seat, (b) the closing of the door associated with the driver's seat, (c) the turning on of a power switch by the engine key, and (d) the actuation of a manually operated AWAY switch.

An attitude controlling device for an adjustable steering wheel and an adjustable seat in a vehicle comprising:

• a portable code transmitter including a plurality of switches and a code generator for generating a code in accordance with the actuated switches;
• a receiver mounted on said vehicle for receiving the code generated and transmitted from said code transmitter;
• a power switch for an engine in said vehicle adapted to be controlled by an engine key;
• a steering wheel attitude setting device operatively connected to said adjustable steering wheel, a seat attitude setting device operatively connected to said adjustable seat, a doorlocking control device on said vehicle and position detecting means associated with said steering wheel, said seat and said door locking control device to provide output signals in accordance with the attitudes of said steering wheel and said seat and the condition of said doorlocking control device;
• and
• an electronic control device having means for generating and memory means for storing a door locking code and attitude information with respect to said steering wheel and said seat associated with a driver's code for at least one driver;
• said electronic control device having means for energizing said door control device in an unlocking mode upon receipt of a code from said transmitter identical to the stored door unlocking code;
• said electronic control device having further means for energizing said steering wheel attitude setting device and positioning said steering wheel to an away position upon the occurance of at least one of (a) the opening of a door on said vehicle adjacent the driver's seat, (b) the turning off of a power switch by said engine key, and (c) the actuation of a manually operated AWAY switch;
• and
• said electronic control device having still further means for reading out the stored attitude information for said steering wheel and said seat from said memory means corresponding to a stored driver's code upon receipt of said stored driver's code and controlling said steering wheel attitude device and said seat attitude setting device in accordance with said attitude information for setting said steering wheel and said seat to the respective attitudes indicated by said read-out attitude information associated with a particular driver's code.