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Omnidirectional Wheels FTW!
For many of us, parallel parking just isn’t in our daily driving diet, as many cities have plenty of perpendicular parking available. However, in larger cities like New York, parallel parking is a way of life. Today, a Canadian inventor has released a video (below) of his prototype omnidirectional wheels that will make life in these cities a lot easier.
These wheels fitted on a stunning Toyota Echo concept (sarcasm totally intended) are the brainchild of one William Liddard. Sure, they look much like any other omnidirectional wheel concept that we’ve seen before, but there is one massive difference in that these wheels will work on any vehicle. Unlike many of the omnidirectional wheels we’ve seen, these rollers don’t require the car to be built around them, as they simply bolt up to any four-wheeled vehicle.
The wheels in the video are concepts, so don’t judge them by appearance just yet. Additionally, Liddard claims that the tires that fit these wheels can have the same siping, grooves, and rubber compounds as the tires you drive on today.
Fitting these wheels to your car will allow you easily strife in and out of tight parallel spaces with ease and even spin your car 360 degrees. One thing you may notice is that these wheels are very slow (this is actually a time-lapse video), which would make them ineffective in a fast-moving city. However, Liddard claims that a quick gear-ratio swap will speed things up.
This is a pretty neat concept in my opinion. Though it is not 100 percent unique, it is a nice modification to technology that is already in the pipeline. Stay tuned for updates.
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