Steering wheel assembly for a motor vehicle and method for operating a portable functional component

A steering wheel assembly for a motor vehicle comprising:

• a steering wheel,
• a plurality of user-operated actuating elements, each arranged on the steering wheel and configured to be operable for actuating corresponding functional components of the motor vehicle-installed in the motor vehicle, and
• an electronic control unit configured to control the actuating elements and to reconfigure and assign at least one of the user-operated actuating elements that is selected by a user to at least one portable second functional component, positioned in the effective surroundings of the electronic control unit and that is not provided to be fixedly installed in the motor vehicle, so that the at least one user-operated actuating element is operable to actuate the portable second functional component with the electronic control unit being further configured to exchange data with the portable second functional component via a signal transmitting link, configured for wireless exchange of data, to reconfigure and assign the at least one user-operated actuating element to the second functional component based on the wireless exchange of data therebetween, characterized in that:
• the electronic control unit is configured to transmit, in response to a first identifier transmitted by the second functional component to the electronic control unit via the signal transmitting link, a second identifier via the signal transmitting link to the second functional component in which at least the number of the user-operated actuating elements which are available for operating the second functional component is encoded, and further characterized in that:
• the at least one user-operated actuating element has a plurality of settings which are each assigned an output signal of the electronic control unit for acting on the first functional component characterized in that the electronic control unit is configured for assigning the output signals to the second functional component in response to a response signal transmitted at the user's instigation from the second functional component to the electronic control unit via the signal transmitting link with the response signal corresponding to the at least one user-operated actuating element that is selected by the user, so that the at least one user-operated actuating element is operable to actuate the portable second functional component instead of the first functional component.