By Agence France-Presse

CHIBA, Japan–Japanese electronics giant Hitachi has developed a steering wheel that enables the driver to use his or her fingers as switches for the engine, car stereo and navigation system.

The steering wheel is equipped with a tiny device that reads the driver’s finger veins.

“If I place my index finger on this reader, it recognizes it’s me. If I put the finger again, it starts the engine,” Masahide Hayashi of Hitachi’s sensor design department explained at the Tokyo Motor Show near the capital.

“When the middle finger is on the device, it sends a command to play music I registered in accordance to my taste. The ring finger can start the navigation system,” he said.

“You can use your fingers just like switches,” without taking your eyes off the road, he said.

Hitachi said it was still uncertain when the system might be put in practical use although it hopes to launch it within three or four years.