Patent filings are a relatively reliable way of keeping tabs on innovation efforts by whatever company might come to mind. Snow Bull Capital CEO Taylor Ogan, a Tesla fan, tweeted bits from Tesla patent filings for swiveling front seats and possibly a moveable steering wheel.
We see the depiction of a cabin where both the driver and the passenger sitting shotgun can swivel their seats 180°, creating a living room atmosphere for the interior. To allow the driver’s seat to move freely without taking up too much space, the diagram also depicts a central steering wheel position with no seat behind it.
This suggests if the seats in a future Tesla model will swivel, then the steering wheel will be moveable too. This idea isn’t especially new, but the cost-saving must surely be significant in producing a single car configuration for both the LHD and RHD markets.
The tweets make no mention of where these patents were filed, or when, but the wording of the text says that the vehicle shown in the diagram “may be a passenger car, truck, sport utility vehicle, or van.” It may also be semi-autonomous or fully-autonomous vehicle, as the position of the steering wheel indicates.
Will AVs in general and Teslas in particular be dependably safe enough one day to allow such a dream use case? That’s difficult to answer optimistically right now, but evidently Tesla wants to be prepared…or to block competition.
