Removable steering wheel and pedals for autonomous vehicle
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsSteven R. El Aile, John P. Joyce, Andrew Brown, Scott J. Lauffer, Samer Abbas
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A dashboard assembly for a vehicle includes a dashboard defining a receiving niche. The niche is alignable with a driver seat location, and is selectively fillable by each of a removable steering module and a removable filler module. The removable steering module includes a steering module base. A steering wheel support is fixed to the steering module base. A steering wheel is rotatably fixed to the steering wheel support. A steering wheel connector connects the steering wheel to a vehicle steering actuator. The removable filler module includes a filler module base.
Claims14
A dashboard assembly for a vehicle comprising:
- a dashboard defining a receiving niche alignable with a driver seat location and the niche being alternatively fillable in a first configuration by a removable steering module and in a second configuration by a removable filler module;
- the removable steering module including:
- a steering module base,
- a steering wheel support fixed to the steering module base,
- a steering wheel rotatably fixed to the steering wheel support,
- a steering wheel connector for connecting the steering wheel to a vehicle steering actuator;
- and
- the removable filler module including a filler module base sized to fill the niche with a substantially line-to-line fit with the dashboard.
A vehicle having a dashboard assembly:
- a dashboard defining a receiving niche aligned with a driver seat location and the niche being alternatively fillable in a first configuration by a removable steering module and in a second configuration by a removable filler module;
- the removable steering module including:
- a steering module base,
- a steering wheel support fixed to the steering module base,
- a steering wheel rotatably fixed to the steering wheel support,
- a steering wheel connector for connecting the steering wheel to a vehicle steering actuator;
- and
- the removable filler module including a filler module base sized to fill the niche with a substantially line-to-line fit with the dashboard.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.