ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,366,878, issued on July 22, was assigned to HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY (Seoul, South Korea) and KIA Corp. (Seoul, South Korea).
"Electronic pedal apparatus" was invented by Eun Sik Kim (Gwangmyeong-si, South Korea), Hyeon Uk Kim (Daegu, South Korea) and Kyung Nam Kim (Daegu, South Korea).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An electronic pedal apparatus may be operated by a driver with a small force. When the driver operates a pedal pad, the pedal pad is operated with a fine displacement, but a change in a pedal force is increased through compression of a return spring using a rotation lever and a spring guide, so that the driver is capable of easil...