Whacky Wheels Video of the Day

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I have no idea what you would use tires like this for, except maybe get a set for friends and family that have a hard time parallel parking. I would probably just do crazy burnouts with them.
 
I Feel like it is about time we have had something like this. The concept is great but damn I bet that picks up all kinds of crap and deposits it under the tire inside the mechanism for spinning it. Also, they don't look very good for snow/rain.
 
so very slow - but pretty cool. Probably a lot needs to be worked out to be... well, usable for normal stuff. And for the price to be reasonable.
 
the-one1 said:
Either its very windy, or the video is sped up
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Definitely sped up...check out how the guy's head moves at 2:06



He does state that he used really slow gearing for the prototype because he didn't want the tires to move very fast at highway speeds.

I wonder about materials of construction and durability. If that is rubber, it's going to break down really quickly being manipulated like that.
 
Wow those wheels look super inexpensive and practical. I'm sure the mainstream will switch over to them now that they've been invented.
 
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can't wait to see the massive wear and tear that the tires will go through. Blowouts are probably sky high on these things.
 
I feel like the same effect could be achieved in a less expensive way with simpler technology. Still neat if not fake, and I say that because I know how I would have faked that video and if I could have faked it then I know lots of other people could have also.
 
I came in expecting to see a shark shoot a hedgehog at a moose. This wasn't as cool. Well, neat, but not cool.
 
I could see self parking planes, self mooring boats, parking lots with 2 cm between spots for places like India where there is overpopulation, taxi planes on an aircraft carrier, Amazon warehouse with one line that moves inventory to other lines based on SKU using these wheels to move the boxes, etc.
 
I wish other people around me had wheels like this.

Living in an urban environment way too many people have no respect what so ever for doing damage to other peoples cars. Many city dwellers see it as the whole purpose of the bumper to be there so you can bump it while parallel parking.

Literally how many people parallel park:

Cut wheel, move backwards into spot until you feel bump from car behind you. Now move forward until you feel bump from car in front of you. Now move back a little bit more and you are done.

I've jokingly heard it called "parking by braille" and "the Boston Bump", but the long story short is, a majority of city dwellers here think that this is how you are SUPPOSED to do it, and when I argue that, No, if two cars ever touch, you just had an accident and should be contacting insurance", they look at me as if I'm some sort of nutcase. I've seen some studies that suggest that nation wide its some 30% of drivers that think this is the correct way to park. It's certainly higher here.

The counter argument is usually "a car is a tool, you don't expect your hammer not to get banged up, you shouldn't expect it of your car either".

And thus I constantly have nicks and dings in my bumpers from these assholes.

I've seen way too many cars in the area with bumpers full of nicks and paint peeling off.
 
How about learn to drive and maneuver? Then one would figure out there's no need for things like this on a car.
 
All that aside, I wonder if tech like this could be added into Electronic stability control systems to vastly improve their abilities.
 
Wolfkin said:
How about learn to drive and maneuver? Then one would figure out there's no need for things like this on a car.
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I could see it being useful if some douche has parallel parked so close to you that you cant get out.
 
How about a car that moves along on a single ball? Quickly.

So long as you put the right fuel in it, of course.

Like Lance Armstrong.
 
I think this would only be great if I were to drive my car around inside the mall. But yeah I can see joystick control for this driving action.
 
Wolfkin said:
How about learn to drive and maneuver? Then one would figure out there's no need for things like this on a car.
Click to expand...

Your simple argument could be applied to any advancement of the car. I have been driving with a clean record for 19years, this would be nice for getting out when in the middle of a stack of cars in a driveway and not needing to get everyone to move first. When one 'learns to drive' you can see advantages to having abilities you don't have on cars currently.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I wish other people around me had wheels like this.

Living in an urban environment way too many people have no respect what so ever for doing damage to other peoples cars. Many city dwellers see it as the whole purpose of the bumper to be there so you can bump it while parallel parking.

Literally how many people parallel park:

Cut wheel, move backwards into spot until you feel bump from car behind you. Now move forward until you feel bump from car in front of you. Now move back a little bit more and you are done.

I've jokingly heard it called "parking by braille" and "the Boston Bump", but the long story short is, a majority of city dwellers here think that this is how you are SUPPOSED to do it, and when I argue that, No, if two cars ever touch, you just had an accident and should be contacting insurance", they look at me as if I'm some sort of nutcase. I've seen some studies that suggest that nation wide its some 30% of drivers that think this is the correct way to park. It's certainly higher here.

The counter argument is usually "a car is a tool, you don't expect your hammer not to get banged up, you shouldn't expect it of your car either".

And thus I constantly have nicks and dings in my bumpers from these assholes.

I've seen way too many cars in the area with bumpers full of nicks and paint peeling off.
Click to expand...

If it makes you feel any better, I agree with you. People shouldn't be crashing into your car if you park it on the street. It's not that big a problem here in Toronto, Canada (which is larger than Boston) but I've considered adding cameras. If it happened on a regular basis I would.
 
Quix said:
If it makes you feel any better, I agree with you. People shouldn't be crashing into your car if you park it on the street. It's not that big a problem here in Toronto, Canada (which is larger than Boston) but I've considered adding cameras. If it happened on a regular basis I would.
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Probably has something to do with your stereotyped national trait of courteousness :p

Also, while Toronto - on paper - is larger by population - that figure is pretty deceptive when it comes to its actual size.

The city itself only has a population of ~600,000 but the actual land mass of the city is tiny for a modern city. It has pretty much grown together with all of the surrounding cities and towns (Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, Medford, Everett, Malden, Belmont, Waltham, Watertown Newton, Wellesley, Brookline, Needham, Milton, Quincy, etc. etc.). As many modern cities grew, they incorporated nearby cities and towns into one larger city, but in Boston this never happened. (well, consume the towns of Allston and Brigthon at some point in history, so they are now neighborhoods, but overall this has happened less than elsewhere.)

All of these cities and towns have their own local government, but the region has a shared public transit system, and cooperates closely on many levels of government. In many cases they are so grown together that you don't notice when crossing from one to the other.

If you consider the overall Boston Metro area, it's still smaller than Toronto, but not THAT much smaller, at approximately 4.7 Million.

Toronto is a nice city. Used to fly into it and stay there all the time a few years back when I was doing business with a company up in Kitchener. Only place I've ever landed on a runway with a layer of snow on it :p
 
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It's interesting but that's where it ends. Guess why is it being put on youtube instead having tyre manufacturers fighting for the patent.

Because it has many flaws, that would take too much effort to fix, and in the end it's a gimmick only a few people who doesn't know how to parallel park would actually buy. You need competely new rims for it with the rolling mechanism in it, increasing the dead weight of the wheels, plus good luck balancing a wheel weighing twice the normal weight with moving parts in it. And you need specially designed tyres that seem to have absolutely no thread on them, which means they are not even road legal in any part of the world, not to mention that they wouldn't work in rain / snow. They seem very fragile, punctures would happen way to often. But the biggest problem i see with it is how do you prevent the tyres from starting to roll sideways when travelling at speed in a bend where there is much lateral acceleration. That's the problems I can see with it immediately after looking at it for a few seconds.
 
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