Steer-by-Wire Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing has been flat to declining since a 2023 peak of five records, with the most recent full year showing no filings across any tracked assignee — a maturing rather than accelerating field.
- All 21 records in scope carry a B62D classification, while only a handful touch motor control (H02P), braking (B60T) or force sensing (G01L), pointing to narrow technical spread around the core steering mechanism.
- The ranked leader holds 7 records against a fifth-place assignee at just 1, a steep drop-off that leaves most of the ranked field as single- or double-digit filers rather than sustained programmes.
What the steer-by-wire patent record shows
Steer-by-wire replaces the mechanical column between the steering wheel and the road wheels with electronic actuation, sensing and force feedback. The claims that matter most are not the motor or the sensor in isolation, but how a system stays fail operational when a channel drops out, and how it fakes the road feel a driver expects without a physical linkage to carry it. This dataset scopes to records whose title or abstract names steer-by-wire or steering-by-wire directly, and whose claims or description touch redundancy architecture, force feedback emulation, fail-operational behaviour, variable steering ratio or packaging freedom — filtered to the B62D5, B62D6 and B60W50 IPC groups that cover steering control and vehicle motion control.
Twenty-one records sit in scope between 2015 and the July 2026 cut-off, ranked across six assignees. The most-cited prior art in the set dates back to the early 2000s, which is typical: citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate references, not because the underlying technology is more current.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 21-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings rose to a peak of five records in 2023, with 2022 sitting at two — a midpoint that shows growth was never steep. Recent years, including the most recent partial year, show no new filings from any tracked assignee. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the last one to two years in this trend will always look thinner than they eventually turn out to be, but the flattening since 2023 is a real signal on top of that lag.
IPC subclass distribution
Every record in scope carries a B62D classification — motor vehicles and steering — which is expected given the search scope. What stands out is how little claim activity reaches outward: H02P (motor and generator control) appears in 9.5% of the 21 records, and B60T (braking), G01L (force and pressure measurement) and H02K (electric motors) each appear in only 4.8%. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these shares sum to more than 100% and should be read against the 21-record total, not against each other.
Shares are the percentage of the 21 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Steer-by-Wire Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about steer-by-wire systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe prior art anchoring this field
US20250242855A1 — Steer by wire system (Danfoss Power Solutions)
A steer by wire system for steering a vehicle with a steering mechanics, having a steering input device and a first actuating arrangement. The first actuating arrangement includes a first electric motor connected to the steering input device and a first hydraulic unit operatively coupled to that motor, with the hydraulic unit configured to be fluidly connected to the steering mechanics.Filed 2025-07-31. Hydraulic actuation coupled to an electric motor is a distinct design choice from the fully electromechanical actuators claimed in the oldest, most-cited records in this set.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6370460B1 | Steer-by-wire system | 183 |
| 2 | US6363305B1 | Steer-by-wire system | 57 |
| 3 | US20020035424A1 | Steer-by-wire system | 36 |
| 4 | US20210070361A1 | Steer by wire system with redundant angular position sensing and an end-of-travel stop | 34 |
| 5 | WO2007031817A1 | Method of controlling a steer by wire steering system | 11 |
| 6 | WO2002022397A1 | Steer-by-wire system | 11 |
| 7 | WO2023153973A1 | A steering system, a method for providing steering feedback in such a system and a steering system feedback a… | 5 |
| 8 | SE2250146A1 | A steering system, a method for providing steering feedback in such a system and a steering system feedback a… | 3 |
| 9 | US20250042465A1 | A steering system, a method for providing steering feedback in such a system and a steering system feedback a… | 1 |
Citation counts are drawn from a searched corpus and skew toward older filings, which have simply had more time to be cited. Treat the ranking as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a measure of current commercial importance.
Publication numbers are shown where the record carries one (9 of 9 rows); clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three findings that change where a team should look before drafting new claims in this space.
The field has stopped accelerating
Filing rose to a peak of five records in 2023 from a midpoint of two in 2022, then dropped to zero in the most recent full year across every tracked assignee. Read the last one to two years cautiously given the usual 18-month publication lag, but the flattening trend predates that window.
Claims cluster tightly on the core mechanism
Every record in scope carries a B62D classification, and the next most common subclass, H02P, reaches only 9.5% of the 21 records. Adjacent systems — braking integration, force sensing, motor control architecture — are each touched by one or two records at most.
One sustained programme, a long tail behind it
The ranked leader holds seven records; by fifth place the count is down to one. With only six assignees in the ranking and a single co-assignee pairing recorded, this reads as one established filer surrounded by isolated or exploratory filings rather than a crowded competitive field.
Filing strategy leans European and US, with PCT as a bridge
Europe and the United States each account for seven records, with four routed through the WIPO PCT system and smaller counts in Sweden and India. This suggests filers are protecting core markets directly while using PCT to keep other jurisdictions open rather than committing early.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to steer-by-wire systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and what is still open
The ranked assignee field is small — six companies — and recent-year momentum has gone quiet across all of them. That combination, rather than a crowded field, is what defines the competitive picture here.
One assignee holds a clear lead
The top-ranked assignee holds seven of the records in the ranking, well ahead of the rest of the field. Even so, its recent-year filing count is zero, consistent with the broader flattening seen since the 2023 peak.
Most ranked assignees hold only one or two records
Beyond the leader, the ranking drops quickly to single- and low-double-digit counts, with fifth place holding just one record. This is a field with one sustained programme and several exploratory or opportunistic filers rather than several competing programmes.
Co-filing is essentially absent
Only one co-assignee pairing appears across the entire dataset, linking a truck manufacturer with an individual inventor. There is no evidence here of joint-venture or cross-licensing filing patterns typical of more mature automotive component fields.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Sensata Technologies | 0 | — |
| Sensata Technologies, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Delphi Technologies Limited | 0 | — |
| Danfoss Power Solutions ApS | 0 | -100% |
| Renault Trucks | 0 | — |
| DECHAMP FRANCOIS | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to a narrow, low-activity field with one dominant filer — useful context before committing drafting time.
Check freedom to operate on adjacent branches
Motor control, braking integration and force sensing each carry only one or two records despite sitting inside the search scope. A targeted search before drafting could reveal whether that gap is real or an artefact of this scope.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaWatch the leader's next move
With filing flat since 2023 and the leading assignee showing zero recent-year activity, a resumption of filing from that assignee would be the clearest early signal of renewed competitive pressure.
Track assignee activity in EurekaRe-run this scope closer to the 2026 cut-off
Publication lag means the most recent one to two years understate true filing activity. Revisiting this same search string in six to twelve months will sharpen the 2025-2026 picture.
Set up a monitoring search in EurekaCommon questions about steer-by-wire patents
Within the scoped search used for this landscape — records naming steer-by-wire directly and touching redundancy, force feedback emulation, fail-operational design, variable steering ratio or packaging freedom, filtered to steering and vehicle-motion IPC codes — there are 21 records published between 2015 and the July 2026 cut-off. This is a narrow, technically defined slice, not a count of every patent that mentions steer-by-wire anywhere in its text, so a broader search string would return a larger number. Treat 21 as the scope-specific figure rather than a total for the technology.
The dataset ranks six assignees, with the leader holding seven of the records in the ranking and the field dropping quickly to single-digit counts — fifth place holds just one record. That is a small, concentrated ranking rather than a broad competitive field, and recent-year filing activity is at zero across every ranked assignee, meaning none of them show current momentum in this specific dataset. A wider search scope or a longer time window could surface additional filers not captured here.
Filing peaked in 2023 at five records, up from two at the 2022 midpoint, and has since flattened to zero in the most recent full year across all tracked assignees. Because patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the very latest year in any dataset understates true activity, so some caution is warranted before concluding the field has stalled entirely. Even allowing for that lag, the trend since 2023 reads as flat to declining rather than accelerating.
Every record in this scope carries a B62D steering classification, but adjacent technical areas are thinly claimed: motor control (H02P) appears in only 9.5% of the 21 records, and braking integration, force and pressure sensing, and electric motor design each appear in under 5%. That pattern suggests claim space around redundant sensing, hydraulic-electric hybrid actuation, and motor control for fail-operational channels is comparatively open, though a dedicated freedom-to-operate search is needed before relying on that as a drafting strategy.
US20250242855A1, filed by Danfoss Power Solutions in mid-2025, claims a steer-by-wire system that couples a first electric motor to a steering input device and pairs that motor with a hydraulic unit fluidly connected to the steering mechanics. This hydraulic-electric hybrid actuation path is a distinct architectural choice from the purely electromechanical actuators described in the oldest and most-cited records in this set. Anyone drafting claims around hydraulic assist stages coupled to electric motor input in a steer-by-wire context should review this filing's specific claim language before assuming that combination is open.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.