Lexus’s first electric car, the RZ450e, came out with a driving system that looked like a yoke but has yet to go into production. At a Lexus event at Fuji Speedway, we drove a version that had been changed a lot, but it responds too quickly at low speeds. The following year, the company will finish developing the steer-by-wire system. The RZ450e, Lexus’s first electric car (EV), has a yoke steering wheel, like Tesla’s Model S and Model X, which will be in 2021. But the yoke has yet to come out, even though the RZ has been on the market for over a year. The company still needs to improve how this new driving system is set up. This is important because, unlike Tesla, which didn’t change the core steering gear, Lexus made improvements to make the yoke work, like reducing steering motion to stop hand-over-hand moves. We had difficulty getting used to the low-speed tune when we first tried it in a RZ prototype. Since then, Lexus experts have made many changes to how the steer-by-wire system works. Instead of turning 150 degrees in each direction, the turning wheel can now be rotated 200 degrees in each direction. At a Lexus race at Fuji Speedway, we tried out the most current design. The yoke is an excellent piece on its own, and it looks like it has little in common with its round predecessor. It has more enormous stalks and paddles for the wipers and turn signals, and the knobs for the music, lighting, and wiper settings are on the front of the yoke. The RZ has a lot of backups so that the steering wheel doesn’t have to be mechanically connected to the front tires. For example, if you put an extra battery under the center console, the steering system will still work even if the primary cell dies. It is still possible to turn to its new maximum of 200 degrees while holding both yoke grips. Even at moderate speeds, we could tell that the steer-by-wire system was natural and easy to get used to because of how much the ratio changed. You don’t have to turn the wheel as much, making hard turns at low speeds easier. But if you try to make small changes when going very slowly, like when moving 5 to 10 mph through a parking lot, the front tires respond too quickly. He seemed to agree when we told the engineer riding shotgun what we thought. When asked when the work will be done, Lexus engineers said they hoped to finish in 2019. Even though the company says there is no set schedule for making the yoke, it will likely start soon. But Lexus says that the collar will be added to other cars in the future, though it doesn’t say which ones.
