I am all for easy parallel parking and tight turn-around!
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I feel like “Z-Corner” (zero-corner) would have been a better name for this system.
this is gonna get used as an excuse to use steer by wire, isn’t it?
for the love of god, no one wants input lag in their cars!
Steer by wire has been around for about 10 years now, mainly in Nissans.
Q50 was first. But it had a tiny mechanical backup. Toyota will bring a full system in Lexus models this year.
Its wild.
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This is a good example of why vertical videos are cancer.
Here’s a much better version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqcAjxVyJZA
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I think related technologies have been introduced a few times over the years. I remember seeing a similar system on an American pickup truck at least a decade ago, and I think Cadillac or someone tried it as well.
As I recall, they’ve always tended to fail because drivers don’t know how to use them. They require learning a new skill and a new way of thinking. An actual self driving vehicle might be able to make more use of the added maneuverability, but people who have been driving for decades (who are the primary market for cars in the price range these run in) have developed a muscle memory such that driving is automatic. Learning to use four wheel steering isn’t just picking up a new skill - it’s actively having to unlearn a fairly complex process that is literally hardwired into your brain at that point.
People who parallel park already know how to do so, and higher end cars can park themselves. Roads are designed for traditionally steered cars (eg for things like the turning radius) so I’m not seeing a benefit there either.
I could see this being useful in something like a forklift, where you do have to be concerned about limited spaces, but there it would be explicitly taught as a new skill which your brain could separate from car driving because it’s a different vehicle with a different application and environment. You wouldn’t have to unlearn anything.
Hm I think you could restrict it enough, so that the driving feels normal and then just have it as an extra feature for parking. Especially now that parking assistants are becoming the new norm it could actually be of value.
I know that technology continues to improve, especially in driver assist modes. However, previous iterations also tried to make it easier by doing things like have traditional steering at one speed and four wheel steering at a much lower speed. None of those experiments were successful as commercial products.
I do agree that the more the car is using it for you, the more realistic it is. It’s just that my car can already park itself with two wheel steering, and as much as I like automated everything and am cost-neutral on most things, I don’t see the four wheel steering bringing enough to the table to be worth the additional manufacturing and maintenance complexity.
I’m more than happy to be proven wrong, and maybe they did it right this time. But at this point I can really only see it in specialized applications - forklifts, aircraft maintenance vehicles, that kinds of thing.
I do agree that the more the car is using it for you, the more realistic it is. It’s just that my car can already park itself with two wheel steering, and as much as I like automated everything and am cost-neutral on most things, I don’t see the four wheel steering bringing enough to the table to be worth the additional manufacturing and maintenance complexity.
I think that’s the crucial point. And yeah I don’t see the potential for a breakthrough here as well
Good for the car that’s going to park, terrible for the parked cars who will then barely get out.
I’ve actually seen someone do the thing many of us wish we could do, and start ramming the cars ahead and behind because he got boxed in like this. His bumpers were fucked all to hell but he got out, put the big pieces in his trunk, and drove off.
No idea what was going on but he was clearly having a bad day.
Personally if I WERE to do this, which of course I NEVER would, I prefer to use a bottle jack to lift the curbside corner up, then push from street side, making the car fall and skew to one side, giving me more room to exit. Note: also works on assholes parking across multiple spaces.
If you’re ever in a parking garage, or somewhere with flat level surfaces, a bottle jack and wheel dollies could let you roll the entire car around.
install some derby-style bumpers and they’ll know their fancy SUV’s gonna get fucked up if they park you in.
People in Boston sometimes have large rubber bumper covers, because according to my uncle “it’s apparently just a cultural norm to ram the other people’s bumpers to figure out how large the parking spot is”
What’s the disadvantage of this system? Bigger wheel wells which reduce cargo space?
Complexity and additional maintenance. Anytime someone introduces stuff like this they should think about reliability. More doodads = more shit that can break.
Unless you parallel park constantly and can’t make the existing methods of doing that work, I suspect this may not be worth it.
Lots of added tech makes these more likely to fail. And I don’t think they’ll be cheap to replace.
The primary reasons that multiple attempts have failed for over 100 years! Motors in each wheel could possibly cross the barrier of complexity, but I’m still not expecting this to make it to mass production anytime soon.
Now you’ll have to worry about front wheel alignment and rear wheel alignements more often. The rear steering components will add cost to the initial purchase of the vehicle as well as more maintaince costs. All to cram more cars into on street parking.
Increased tire wear and related pollution.
I’m sure they will put it behind a $79.99 month paywall
That could be hella fun at highway speeds!
We already had this figured out in the 1920s:
Neat! I was expecting this one but your example is 30 years older!
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Oh yeah, I’ve seen this one before. Turns out the 5th wheel is not a new concept:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMdLZLA8NcE
I imagine it’s a lot more expensive to manufacture than the angled front wheels, but those only worked on the old body styles.
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Knowing how to do it conceptually and knowing how to do it in mass produced cars is the big thing and I am expecting this to either not be cost effective. Not sure if it will be reliable for over 100k miles, but I expect the cost to limit it to the weird luxury car space at best.
The fact that now each wheel can be fully independent with their own motors makes executing this much easier than before without adding extra hardware, simply working with software.
It’s actually more difficult. Previously those wheels had no drive and no issues being fully independent.
Adding a motor to the wheel makes this more complicated than in the 20s but much more advantageous.
If you want to do full crab like the one in the article, not just front wheels like in the oldies video, you need to power the wheels. With 4 independent driving wheels you can switch between traditional 2 wheel steer, 4 wheel steer, crab (for parallel parking) and orbit for turning around in place. There is no transmission axle between the wheels so they can be independently rotated and controlled, just like on a film dolly.
Look at that, a car driver nearly running over a cyclist for the lulz in the 1920s!
