ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,291,260, issued on May 6, was assigned to TOYODA GOSEI Co. LTD. (Aichi-pref., Japan).
"Steering wheel" was invented by Bunpei Morita (Kiyosu, Japan) and Motoya Funatsu (Kiyosu, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A steering wheel includes: a steering portion which is gripped and steered by a driver; a boss portion which is disposed inside the steering portion and is coupled to a steering center shaft of the steering portion; and an operation portion which is disposed adjacent to the steering portion, and is configured to be swingable with respect to the steering portion, to input an accelerator operation by being operated to swing in a ...