Mercedes launches columnless steering on the EQS

In the 2026 EQS cabin, the steering wheel is no longer connected to the wheels by a mechanical column. Mercedes is introducing steer-by-wire as standard: movement is transmitted electronically to electric motors, while actuators send the driver an artificial sense of the road. Luc Diebold, a French engineer based in Stuttgart and a Mercedes steering specialist, took part in developing the system.

The first change is the additional space. Without a column, designers can rearrange the interior and envision a more compact steering wheel, a joystick, voice control or eye control. A round steering wheel is no longer the only possible shape, and it could even be placed elsewhere in the cabin. Diebold points out, however, that the « yoke » also serves to make a technology that is currently offered as an option more visible.

The system mainly changes the way the car is steered. The steering ratio — the relationship between the steering-wheel angle and the wheel angle — varies from 6 to 16 depending on the circumstances. Around the middle of the steering range, Mercedes announces a ratio of 6 to 6.5; at 100 km/h, it reaches approximately 13.5, then rises to 15-16 at high speed to promote stability. In Sport mode, the contribution of rear-wheel steering is slightly reduced to enhance the sensation of a car that points through its front end.

The question of electronic failure remains central. Mercedes says it did not settle for simple redundancy: rear-wheel steering completes the system, for a total of three steering paths, two of them backups. In blind simulator tests, the manufacturer says that 90% of drivers could not distinguish ratio changes made on the fly, with the brain naturally readjusting the movement.

So what does it mean in practice? For the driver, the immediate benefit is steering that can become very direct during manoeuvres and then more stable on the motorway, without changing hardware. For the manufacturer, the main issue is the car’s architecture: a freer cabin and a different design for the area supporting the steering wheel in a crash. These results nevertheless rely on Mercedes’ testing and expertise; no independent test is cited here.