The Effect of Variable-Ratio Steering Gears on Driver Preference and Performance

Two variable-ratio and three linear steering gears were compared to determine whether variable-ratio gears offered any advantages or disadvantages for vehicle control. The results indicate that variable-ratio gears may improve performance significantly in tasks such as parallel parking. There is no evidence that variable-ratio gears affect performance on other driving tasks. Subjects expressed strong preference for one variable-ratio design of moderate characteristics but generally expressed dislike for a more extreme design.