Ford Loses its Mind, Patents a Removable Electric Unicycle

Ford’s Electric Unicycle (Credit: © Ford)

In my years of covering all sorts of powered things that ride on round hunks of vulcanized rubber, I have seen my fair share of outrageous patents. Typically, these come from mad engineers who just want to have something patented, despite not having any intention of ever following through with their creation. The last company I would expect to see a crazy patent from would be Ford, but I can now cross the American automaker off my list, as it recently patented the above removable unicycle.

As odd as this looks, I had to double check that it was not the first of April. Fortunately, it is not, so there must be some sort of intent with this crazy design.

According to Ford, this is “a self-propelled unicycle” that the driver can “selectively disengaged with the vehicle for independent use.” Delivering the propulsion power is an electric motor housed within the hub, but there is no mention of how one would control this rolling wheel of death. A standard car tire would be nearly impossible to lean far enough to turn the unicycle without the significant risk of nasty road rash, and there is no indication of any sort of turning mechanism. I could be missing something here, but I just don’t see a way to turn.

While I think the concept of a removable satellite ride is pretty neat for congested city streets of the future, I just cannot see this being a reality. I think it is safe to put this in the “overzealous intern” file. You never know, maybe Ford has something up its sleeve, and it’ll actually roll out a working concept at a place like SEMA or CES.

Let us know in the comments what you think of this wild patent and if you think it could, at some point, be a reality.