Canadian inventor William Liddiard claims to have developed omni-directional wheels for your car which will allow you to crab sideways for parking and tight manoeuvring.
Such wheels have been developed previously, and are usually used in small, low-speed applications in the field of robotics. Honda has previously shown prototype self-balancing Segway-like devices with omni-directional wheels. Liddiard says that his wheels are the first which are not only suitable for general driving and high-speed driving, but are also bolt-on - their design means that the car doesn't have to be specifically built around them.
Liddiard has declined to say as yet exactly how the system works, as he’s currently trying to take out patents on the wheels in several territories, but he has made a short video, showing the wheels in use, fitted to a Toytoa Echo, a Canadian-market version of the Yaris.
In a statement, Liddiard said that “Unlike other omni capable wheels, my wheels do not require the vehicle to be built around them. This is a world first bolt-on application for anything with wheels. Designed to be used in all weather and road conditions, they are stronger, faster and more accurately controlled than prior art. They can take a beating. The tires can have the same build characteristics as regular tires and you can drive in all directions, and turn on the spot when needed.”
Generally, such wheels limit a car's normal high-speed performance, but Liddiard says that altering the gearing of the car can compensate for that. He hopes to sell the technology to a major tyre company, but he may be a bit behind the ball on that one - Goodyear recently showed off a new Eagle 360 tyre prototype, which are entirely spherical and designed to provide maximum possible agility for autonomous. cars. "By steadily reducing the driver interaction and intervention in self-driving vehicles, tires will play an even more important role as the primary link to the road. Goodyear's concept tires play a dual role in that future both as creative platforms to push the boundaries of conventional thinking and test beds for next-generation technologies", said Joseph Zekoski, Goodyear's senior vice president and chief technical officer.
The Goodyear systems are incredibly high-tech though, and actually require nothing less than sci-fi magnetic levitation to work. The Liddiard system looks to be a far more affordable and easier system to build.
