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Recently, a car blogger said on Weibo that "the half-format steering wheel may not be allowed to be announced next". The "announcement" refers to the "announcement of Road Motor vehicle production Enterprises and products" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Only on this announcement can the vehicle be approved for production. In a sense, it can be understood as the production license of the car. However, the authenticity of this news needs to be further confirmed.

In fact, the application of half-amplitude steering wheel in cars has been for a long time, mainly focused on F1 cars, and if placed in the passenger car market, it is indeed a new thing. Looking at the domestic market, there are not many models with half-amplitude steering wheel, including Tesla Model S Plaid version, Lexus RZ, Zhiji LS7 and so on. These models are basically pure electric vehicles with a price of more than 300000 yuan.

As a new thing, the half-amplitude steering wheel does look cooler than the ordinary steering wheel, but it is not easy to use, subverting the previous usage habits.

One of the main reasons why F1 cars can be equipped with a half-amplitude steering wheel is that driving on the track requires more control of the vehicle, and the driver is highly focused and his hands must always be held at 3: 00 or 9: 00. And can't leave the steering wheel.

Unlike F1 cars, models that currently use a half-amplitude steering wheel do not have the same 8:1 steering ratio or variable steering ratio as F1 cars. What is "turning ratio"? To put it simply, it is the ratio of the steering wheel rotation angle to the wheel rotation angle. The steering ratio of ordinary vehicles has always been relatively large, and many corners require the driver to change hands to complete the steering. This setting can give drivers a great degree of fault tolerance. In other words, the biggest effect of passenger cars with a half-steering wheel on the market may be to look more beautiful.

Zhiji Joint CEO has responded to the reason for the installation of a half-amplitude steering wheel, saying that on the one hand, the use of a half-amplitude steering wheel is in pursuit of a wider field of vision, and drivers do not have to worry about being obscured when looking at the dashboard. On the other hand, it is because the steering wheel has been adding since the invention of the car, and now with the advent of the smart age, the steering wheel will begin to subtract.

Even if they are all half-format steering wheels, there are differences in the choice of technical solutions. Tesla Model S Plaid and Zhiji LS7 still adopt the traditional steering ratio scheme, while Lexus RZ adopts a line-controlled variable steering ratio scheme. the biggest advantage of this scheme is that it can cancel the physical connection between the steering wheel and the steering actuator, and the steering ratio can be adjusted in real time according to the driving scene. The axis of the steering wheel is in the middle, even if the steering wheel turns from the left to the right less than one lap, the driver does not need to change hands throughout the process.

With the development of electrification and intelligence, many innovations have emerged one after another, such as single pedal, streaming media rearview mirror, electric suction door and half-format steering wheel. These new things have subverted the old driving habits when they were born. This is also where the new things are controversial. Of course, even if the half-width steering wheel is not allowed, the impact on the above models will not be great. For example, Lexus RZ and Zhiji LS7 all have traditional steering wheel options.

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