World's first folding steering wheel revealed

Autoliv, alongside American autonomous-vehicle maker Tensor, has unveiled what they describe as the world’s first foldable steering wheel designed for production autonomous cars.

Unlike the fixed wheels found in every car for more than a century, this system functions as a conventional steering wheel in manual mode, but retracts cleanly into the dashboard when a vehicle switches into Level 4 autonomous driving, where all driving tasks are handled by the vehicle under defined conditions.

​​Mechanically, the system uses an electronically actuated column that folds the wheel away in one smooth motion, while software-linked safety systems automatically reconfigure airbag deployment and restraint strategies depending on whether the vehicle is being driven by a human or itself.

Forming part of the Tensor Robocar — expected to enter volume production in the second half of 2026 — the move could mean steering wheels become a modular component in future, with motorists able to simply remove them when not required.

As vehicles learn to drive themselves, the environments they will operate in, as well as how they interact with people and infrastructure, are also evolving. American start-up Autolane is working on a form of ‘air traffic control’ for autonomous vehicles, to support the coordination of driverless traffic in built-up areas.

Autolane is focusing on the critical challenge of coordinating when autonomous vehicles should stop for pickups and drop-offs, and how they navigate complex curbside environments. Its systems are being tested at multiple shopping centres in the U.S., managing everything from parking guidance to real-time assignments for robotaxis and delivery vehicles.

Closer to home, London continues to serve as fertile ground for this transition, too. Goodwood has documented Wayve’s autonomous Mustang tests, and now news reaches us that Microsoft is supporting the commercial rollout of the vehicles by connecting thousands of GPUs into a supercomputer for deployment across the fleet.

Taken together, these developments suggest 2026 may be remembered as the year autonomous vehicles started to look and behave like a transport ecosystem, rather than a collection of isolated experiments.

Key questions remain, however, around how quickly regulators will adapt to production vehicles without fixed controls, how cities will manage autonomous traffic alongside human drivers, and how these technologies will be adopted outside early adopter markets.

Future mobility will be one of the key topics explored at FOS Future Lab presented by Randox at the 2026 Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard, although fortunately, none of these things will matter out on the famous Goodwood Hill. Some things are sacrosanct, after all. 

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