Sayer: the steering wheel by Jaguar that will satisfy the sense-of-belonging need of the car of the future

The future of mobility is heading towards autonomous driving and carsharing, two trends that will inevitably increase the number of shared vehicles and consequently turn exclusive car ownership into something anecdotal. Car manufacturers are very aware of this and therefore try to anticipate the needs users will have in the future, among them the need to own something that sets us apart from others when driving a shared car. With this in mind, Jaguar has designed a steering wheel prototype that sets out its vision of what cars will be like in the year 2040.

The steering wheel in question is called Sayer and will be presented next week as a prototype. It is a revolutionary invention that will become one of our most common belongings. Just like the smartphone or the tablet, the Jaguar steering wheel will accompany us everywhere and will therefore be sized to be easily carried wherever we go.

Among the functions that we will be able to perform with Jaguar’s futuristic steering wheel are the remote reservation of a vehicle (something we can already do today via smartphone and through carsharing companies such as Emov or car2go), customising the vehicle’s services, and access to a on-demand vehicle platform where we must choose whether to drive a vehicle for exclusive use or to share the car with other users.

At first glance, none of the functions mentioned above seem extremely revolutionary for a steering wheel designed for the year 2040. The point is that Jaguar’s goal with this steering wheel goes beyond technological advances; in fact, it is intended so that users feel that even if they share the vehicle with other users, there will still be something only they can use. A need for distinction that we do not yet know whether future generations will have.