Computer game controls come to cars

Alps has come up with a drive-by-wire system for cars that gives you feedback about road conditions through the steering wheel and pedals. We have a feeling this is something that's been in high-end arcade games for a while (albeit not feeding back anything from a real road surface), so it's good to see that the real world has caught up. We have to admit we're reassured that the system comes from a car electronics company rather than Sega, though.

The advantages claimed (which to an extent are those of all drive-by-wire systems) are that the lack of need for mechanical connections means lighter cars and more freedom to design cabin layouts. They also mention safety, which we presume means that you can use software to do things like smooth out the driving of people who think the brake and accelerator are on/off switches (i.e., a significant proportion of Tokyo taxi drivers). Personally, our main safety concern would be what happens if everything goes down, given the lack of physical connections. We'd like a big red handle hooked up to the brakes just in case.

Alps will be displaying this at its trade show in May, with one of the toys on display a cockpit from which you can drive a radio-controlled car, which sounds rather fun, though it marks a rare instance of someone building a controller that's bigger than the thing being controlled.

[Via ITmedia (Japanese)]

[Press release with more photos (Japanese)]