Steering handle

Abstract

To realize a steering handle provided with an accelerator function which reduces strain on fingers and allows for a fine accelerator operation by operating an accelerator with plural fingers of a thumb and the other fingers.SOLUTION: A steering handle comprises: a columnar gripping part 12; and an approximately cylindrical accelerator part 14, with the gripping part 12 as an axis, which is rotatably fitted to the vicinity thereof, and can operate the acceleration / deceleration of a vehicle. The accelerator part 14 includes: a main face 16 formed in such a manner that a part thereof extends in the outside direction of a cylinder and pressed with the thumb of a driver; and a finger stop part 18 provided at the side opposite to the main face 16 in an outer circumferential face of the accelerator part 14 and operated with fingers other than the thumb engaged, and the accelerator part 14 is rotated by the operations of the main face 16 and the finger stop part 18 by the driver.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a steering wheel having an accelerator function. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, vehicles have been proposed that have an operating unit for manually operating the accelerator located near the steering wheel. Since this type of structure does not require the driver to operate the accelerator with his / her foot, it may be applied to welfare vehicles driven by drivers with injured legs or with disabilities. In addition, compared to a structure in which the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal are located at the foot, this type of structure has the advantages of preventing the driver from accidentally stepping on the wrong pedal due to visual difficulties, ensuring a large space for the feet, and easing restrictions on driving posture, so it is also effective when applied to general vehicles.

[0003] Patent Document 1 discloses a driving assistance device in which an operation unit for manually operating the vehicle's accelerator is provided near a steering grip. In this driving assistance device, the driver operates the accelerator by pressing the operation unit with the fingers of the driver's hand while gripping the steering grip. With the configuration of this driving assistance device, the operation unit does not interfere with the spokes of the steering wheel, so the operation unit can be firmly pressed in, making it easy to operate the accelerator. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2020-203602 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] Incidentally, among vehicles in which an operation unit for manually operating the accelerator is provided near the steering wheel, there are vehicles in which the driver operates the steering wheel by gripping a knob provided on the steering wheel with his right hand and operates the accelerator by gripping a lever provided with accelerator and brake functions with his left hand. There are also vehicles in which the driver operates the accelerator by gripping the steering wheel with both hands and pushing the operation unit with the thumb of the same hand. These vehicles have room for improvement in that the accelerator and brake cannot be operated simultaneously. In addition, when driving these vehicles for a long time, the driver is likely to be burdened. In particular, in a structure in which the accelerator is operated only by the thumb, the burden on the thumb increases. Furthermore, it is not easy to realize the fine accelerator operation required for stable driving and smooth acceleration and deceleration only by the thumb.

[0006] Therefore, in this specification, a driver can grip a steering wheel equipped with an accelerator section and operate the accelerator section with multiple fingers, including the thumb and other fingers, thereby reducing the burden on the fingers and realizing a steering wheel that allows for fine accelerator operation. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The steering wheel disclosed in this specification comprises a cylindrical grip portion and an approximately cylindrical accelerator portion rotatably attached around the grip portion as an axis, and capable of controlling acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle, the accelerator portion having a main surface that is formed by extending a portion in the outward direction of the cylinder and is pressed and operated by the driver's thumb, and a finger stop portion that is provided on the outer peripheral surface of the accelerator portion on the side opposite to the main surface and is operated in a locked state with a finger other than the thumb, and the accelerator portion rotates when the driver operates the main surface and the finger stop portion. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to the steering wheel disclosed in the present invention, the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle are controlled by rotating the accelerator section, which has a main surface that is pressed by the driver's thumb and a finger stop section that is operated with fingers other than the thumb engaged, so that the burden on the fingers is reduced compared to when the accelerator section is operated with only the thumb, and the accelerator can be operated with finer precision. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of the steering wheel as seen from the driver's left side. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the accelerator portion of FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] The steering wheel will be described below with reference to the drawings. In each drawing, "Fr", "Up" and "Rh" respectively indicate the front, upper and right sides of the vehicle.

[0011] Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a steering wheel as seen from the driver's side and from the left side. The steering wheel 10 shown in Fig. 1 is provided in front of the driver's seat (not shown) inside the vehicle. The steering wheel 10 is generally trapezoidal as viewed from the front from the rear side of the vehicle, and the left and right leg portions of this trapezoid are formed by cylindrical gripping parts 12 that are gripped by the driver who steers the vehicle.

[0012] In the steering wheel 10, an accelerator unit 14 is attached to the right grip unit 12 that is operated by the driver with the right hand. In FIG. 1, the part surrounded by a two-dot chain line is the accelerator unit 14. The accelerator unit 14 is attached to the grip unit 12 so as to be rotatable around the axis of the grip unit 12. The rotation of the accelerator unit 14 allows the vehicle to be accelerated or decelerated. In this example, the accelerator unit 14 is attached to the right grip unit 12, but this is not limited to this. For example, depending on the driver's dominant hand, the accelerator unit 14 may be attached to the left grip unit 12. In addition, the accelerator unit 14 is not limited to being attached to only one side of the left or right grip unit 12, but can also be attached to both sides.

[0013] In FIG. 1, the accelerator section 14 is surrounded by a two-dot chain line and shown in the enlarged view A. More specifically, the enlarged view A shows the shape of the accelerator section 14 as seen from the driver's side and from the upper right when the accelerator section 14 is in the initial position (i.e., when the accelerator section 14 is not operated by the driver and is not rotating). As shown in the enlarged view A, the accelerator section 14 is generally cylindrical in shape, with a portion of the cylinder extending outward. The extended portion faces the driver's side in the initial position and extends inward in the vehicle width direction. The accelerator section 14 has a surface 16 (hereinafter referred to as the "main surface 16") having the extended portion facing the driver's side, and a finger stop portion 18 provided on the outer circumferential surface of the accelerator section 14 on the side opposite the main surface 16. The accelerator portion 14 is a single component in which the main surface 16 and the finger stop portion 18 are linked together, and the accelerator portion 14 is rotated by operating the main surface 16 and the finger stop portion 18, thereby achieving acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle.

[0014] The main surface 16, which will be described later with reference to FIG. 2, is the surface that is pressed by the driver's thumb. The portion 16a (the above-mentioned extension portion, hereinafter referred to as the "extension portion 16a") extending outward from the main surface 16 is the surface on which the driver's thumb is placed and is the surface that is pressed. As shown in the enlarged view A, the extension portion 16a not only extends outward on the main surface 16 (i.e., it does not extend straight in the tangent direction of the cylindrical shape of the accelerator portion 14), but also has a receptacle shape that allows the driver's thumb to fit in. In other words, the extension portion 16a itself has a concave shape when viewed from the driver's side.

[0015] The finger stopper 18 is a portion that is operated when the driver's finger other than the thumb is engaged with the finger stopper 18, which will be described later with reference to Fig. 2. As shown in Fig. 1, the finger stopper 18 in this example is a protrusion, and the driver operates the driver by hooking a finger other than the thumb (for example, the index finger in this example) on the protrusion.

[0016] Next, the operation of the accelerator section 14 will be further described with reference to Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the accelerator section in Fig. 1. More specifically, Fig. 2 is a B-B cross-sectional view of the accelerator section 14 shown in Fig. 1, and is a diagram that shows a schematic cross-sectional shape of the accelerator section 14 in a plan view. As shown in Fig. 2, the driver places the thumb 20 on the extension section 16a of the main surface 16, hooks the index finger 22 on the finger stop section 18, places the fingers on the accelerator section 14, and grips the grip section 12 (not shown in Fig. 2) with the other fingers and the palm, thereby steering the steering wheel 10.

[0017] As described above, the main surface 16 and the finger stopper 18 are linked, and the operation of the accelerator unit 14 is realized by pushing the extension 16a of the main surface 16 with the thumb 20 and pulling the index finger 22 around the finger stopper 18. In FIG. 2, the moment of the pushing force of the thumb 20 is represented by a thick arrow 24, and the moment of the pulling force of the index finger 22 is represented by an arrow 26. That is, by applying moments in two directions, the accelerator unit 14 rotates and the speed is controlled. As an example, deceleration is performed by operating a conventional accelerator pedal operated by the foot or an accelerator of a motorcycle. That is, the accelerator unit 14 is biased toward the origin position without accelerator operation by the force of a spring. Therefore, when the driver releases his / her finger to weaken the biasing force of the accelerator unit 14, the rotation of the accelerator unit 14 returns to the original position by the spring reaction force, and the accelerator unit 14 is decelerated.

[0018] As described above, accelerator section 14 applies moments in two directions, so when operating steering wheel 10 in this example, the burden on thumb 20 does not increase as it would if accelerator operation were performed by operating thumb 20 alone. Furthermore, because accelerator section 14 is rotated and operated with multiple fingers, including thumb 20 and index finger 22, operation is stable and allows for fine accelerator operation.

[0019] Even if the thumb 20 and index finger 22 are not firmly placed in the basic position as described above to grip the grip portion 12, the accelerator portion 14 can be operated by simply pushing the extension portion 16a with the thumb 20 or pulling the finger stop portion 18 with the index finger 22. From the viewpoint of reducing the burden on the fingers, the basic operation method is to turn the accelerator portion 14 while placing the thumb 20 and index finger 22 on the extension portion 16a and the finger stop portion 18 of the main surface 16, respectively, but this is not limited to this. For example, various switches are installed in the center of the steering wheel 10, but since the accelerator portion 14 in this example can be operated with just the index finger 22, it is possible to operate the switches by removing the thumb 20 from the main surface 16. Here, if the structure is such that the accelerator is operated only by the operation of the thumb 20, when the thumb 20 is removed from the accelerator portion 14, the rotation of the accelerator portion 14 returns to the original position due to the spring reaction force, and the speed is not maintained and the accelerator portion 14 is decelerated. Meanwhile, while accelerator 14 in this example is basically structured to be operated with thumb 20 and index finger 22 as described above, the rotational position of accelerator 14 can be maintained by placing either finger on accelerator 14. Therefore, even if thumb 20 is removed from main surface 16 or index finger 22 is removed from finger stop portion 18, accelerator 14 will not return to its original rotation against the driver's will, and the speed can be maintained.

[0020] The above description is merely an example, and the steering wheel disclosed in this specification may be configured to operate the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle by rotating an accelerator part having a main surface that is pressed by the driver's thumb and a finger stop part that is provided on the outer circumferential surface of the accelerator part on the opposite side to the main surface and is operated by a finger other than the thumb. Therefore, other configurations may be changed as appropriate.

[0021] For example, the steering wheel of this example eliminates the need to operate the accelerator with the foot, but the steering wheel of this example can also be applied to a conventional vehicle that has an accelerator pedal. Also, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the finger stopper is a protrusion, but is not limited to this and may be a recessed shape. Also, the finger stopper may not have a concave portion, but may simply have a non-slip portion to prevent the fingers from slipping. In other words, the finger stopper may have a shape that allows the user to easily turn the accelerator while keeping the fingers other than the thumb in a locked state.

[0022] In addition, as described above, the normal operation of the accelerator in this example is realized by pressing the main surface with the thumb and pulling the fingers other than the thumb by hooking them on the finger stopper, but this is not limited to the case where irregular operations are required. For example, when sudden deceleration is required, the accelerator may be operated by pressing the finger stopper in the deceleration direction of the accelerator. [Explanation of symbols]

[0023] 10 steering handle, 12 grip portion, 14 accelerator portion, 16 main surface, 16a extension portion, 18 finger rest portion.

Claims

[Claim 1] A cylindrical gripping portion; an accelerator part having a substantially cylindrical shape and attached rotatably around the grip part as an axis, the accelerator part being capable of operating acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle; Equipped with The accelerator portion is A main surface is formed by extending a part of the main surface in an outer direction of the cylinder and is pressed by the thumb of the driver; a finger stop portion provided on an outer peripheral surface of the accelerator portion opposite to the main surface and operated in a state where a finger other than the thumb is held by the finger stop portion; having The accelerator part rotates when the driver operates the main surface and the finger stop part. A steering wheel characterized by:

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