Patent attributes
A steering wheel assembly includes an airbag module having an airbag; and a centrally-located steering pad housing said airbag module and includes; a deployment segment located around a peripheral region and adapted to be forcibly displaced by inflation of the airbag; and a stationary segment located in a central region and kept in its fixed state even when the inflation of said airbag. The stationary segment is provided with a manual operation section adapted to be manually operated based on rotational or sliding movements to control an in-vehicle device, wherein said steering pad has a concave portion formed on a surface of the stationary segment; and said manual operation section is disposed within said concave portion in such a manner that a lateral surface of said manual operation section is spaced apart from a lateral wall surface of said concave portion.
