Ford’s lunchtime wheel deal for white van man
The first patent for a car cupholder can be traced back to 1953 but an innovation by Ford may prove equally as groundbreaking for drivers during meal breaks: a steering wheel that tilts to become a tray table for their lunch.
The tilting steering wheel is set to debut on the Ford Transit Custom van next year, having been homologated for sale. Its three angle settings mean it can be used for driving, as a tray table or as a laptop stand for busy workers who need to file reports or join video calls during the working day.
The design was conceived by D-Ford, a global unit within Ford, specialising in innovation and “human-centric design”. Three quarters of the department’s staff members are recruited from outside the car industry with backgrounds in areas including marketing, design and engineering, which Ford claims brings fresh eyes to the company’s vehicles.
D-Ford staff members spend much of their time with customers, learning how they interact with their vehicles and observing any issues or custom modifications that are made after purchase and coming up with ways to make life easier for them. It’s not a purely altruistic endeavour, of course: happy customers result in repeat sales.
The tilting steering wheel was the result of feedback from drivers of the Transit, according to Chiara Onida, product design lead for D-Ford in East London. Customers spend up to eight hours a day in their cabs, using them as mobile offices and dining rooms, and, as one Transit driver pointed out, the regular steering wheel gets in the way when eating lunch.
“We asked them why they didn’t eat lunch on the passenger side,” said Onida (below). “He said, ‘I don’t want to be on the passenger seat; I’m the driver, the king of the road, I want to be in charge. So I usually have my lunch at the driving position.’”
D-Ford came up with the idea of the tray table to solve the problem, creating a prototype out of cardboard and showing it to the customer for feedback.
“We take to customers really quick, scrappy prototypes,” Onida said, showing us the original mock-up: a very simple piece of cardboard with a steering wheel printed on it and a hinge connecting the rim to the centre. “It’s great because it’s so lo-fi they don’t feel bad about critiquing it.”
The next stage was to create a 3D-printed version, which was fitted to a test rig. It had two settings: the normal and tray table positions.
“We had one utility company that had cut a hole in the dashboard of their Transit to hold a plank of wood that was being used as a shelf for a laptop, so we asked customers to try using the laptop on the tray table, too.”
The D-Ford researchers noticed that the laptop was too high to use comfortably, which is why a third position, at a more slanted angle, was introduced to make laptop use easier.
“Using the laptop in the driving seat is something they already do; we just thought why not make it a bit easier?”
Now all white van man needs is a rack for their copies of The Sun.
The new Ford Transit Custom will come with diesel, mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fully-electric powertrains, and will go into production from the second half of 2023.
Related articles
- After reading about the Ford Transit’s new tilting steering wheel, check out the new Ford Supervan, which is now electric … and has 1,973bhp
- And don’t miss our Ford E-Transit 2022 review
- Also check out this story about the Ford Fiesta, S-Max and Galaxy being axed as the company shifts to electric cars
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