This Volkswagen novelty changes the way you have been indicating direction for years

Whichever car you get into, you immediately know how to indicate your direction. If you have no idea: you almost always do this with the lever to the left of the steering wheel. Up is to the right, down is to the left. Can't be simpler. However, according to a patent, Volkswagen is toying with the idea of ​​putting the flashing light handle in the bulky waste. Instead, you have to operate the turn signal with buttons on the steering wheel.

Buttons on a steering wheel sound more cumbersome than a simple lever. Especially when you consider that you are not dealing with one button, but two rows of buttons. One row is intended for certain basic functions such as the lighting, while the other row serves the subcategory, such as the high beam, the fog light and therefore also the flashing light in the case of lighting.

Hm, nice idea, but we doubt whether the novelty from Volkswagen is user-friendly. In any case, it results in an even more minimalist interior, so design gurus may be jumping with enthusiasm.

Curious about what other car brands come up with to make your life 'easier'? Sign up for our weekly newsletter:

Both hands on the wheel

What is also striking is that the buttons are not on the spoke of the steering wheel, as is usually the case with steering wheel controls, but on the rim. Just above your hands, if you drive neatly with both hands on the wheel and keep them at a quarter to three. The advantage is that you can keep them on the wheel as soon as you indicate direction. But you almost do that in the usual way.

Image damage

According to the patent explanation, the new way of indicating direction should provide a more user-friendly operation. The patent was filed according to autozeitung.de recently released by a German patent office where it was filed by Volkswagen in early 2022.

That is well before Volkswagen boss Thomas Schäfer announced that the touch buttons in the Volkswagen ID.3 and the Volkswagen ID.4 led to a lot of reputational damage. So whether the steering wheel control for direction indication will make it to the production stage remains to be seen.