[HN Gopher] Will Citroen manage to re-invent the wheel? ___________________________________________________________________ Will Citroen manage to re-invent the wheel? Author : simonebrunozzi Score : 48 points Date : 2021-12-29 12:44 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (medium.com) (TXT) w3m dump (medium.com) | amelius wrote: | Those semi-open wheelcases are a safety hazard. | devadvance wrote: | Putting aside gripping strength versus traditional wheels for a | moment, it would be interesting to see if this would enable more | efficient street geometries. For example, due to the reduced | turning radius, could this open up additional safety buffer space | for pedestrians at city crosswalks? | dathinab wrote: | You can only reduce turning radius when you also reduce speed. | | For many cars and ares in the world the turning radius usable | on small streets is not really a problem. | | > open up additional safety buffer space | | I don't think that matters, we already have very save cross | road designs, we just need to use them. | dpark wrote: | These don't provide a better turning radius than traditional | wheels. The reduced turning radius only happens because the | left and right wheels can spin independently, but you can do | that with traditional wheels (but not traditional drive | trains). | | I'm not sure that this does anything for pedestrian safety, | though. | ralusek wrote: | Wheels like this could literally turn the car 360 degrees in | place... | dathinab wrote: | Yes but only if you stand on a point, not in moving | traffic. | | E.g. if you are on a bike you can have a hyper small | turning radius, but only if you mover very very slow (but | not too slow ;) ). | | The problem is requiring such a radius would be a safety | hazard, as people would all the time not get the turn due | to driving to fast, even if they literally started driving | a moment ago due to a red traffic light. | davidhyde wrote: | What is the point of exposing the wheels like that? Seems to | serve no purpose other than aesthetics and looks to be very | dangerous (a finger and foot trap). | blacksmith_tb wrote: | We don't cover or shroud car tires much at present, and that | doesn't cause injuries particularly? I do agree this design | seems to be more aesthetic than practical (I'd like to see it | in the rain...) | sp332 wrote: | Sure but tires these days have a bumper somewhere in the | direction of travel. If the spherical tires are going | straight sideways, it's more likely to catch something by | accident. Also, you're not generally going to pinch your | finger in a wheel well like you would with this arrangement. | ryukafalz wrote: | > Going for this feature will replace the (obligatory) stops at | the gym before going to work although you might still find | yourself appreciating the authenticity of going to an actual | fitness place with humans alongside you. | | Ah yes, because the alternative to biking in place in a pod-car | on your way to work is to bike in place in a gym. Not, say, to | ride an actual bike to work and get your exercise in that way! | (And have other humans alongside you to boot.) | egypturnash wrote: | Slower, too. | | _the Citroen Autonomous Mobility Vision has a top speed of | only 25 km /h._ | | Which is about 15.5 mph, for us backwards Americans. I think | I'm faster than that on my cheap, shitty junker of a bicycle. | Svip wrote: | Seems slightly ironic for the company that invented the unibody | to re-invent a separate chassis and body. | dathinab wrote: | This looks like a useful thing for special purpose areas, like | like the kinds of areas like areas with a set of exhibition halls | and similar. | | But thinking it makes sense "on a normal street" sound to me like | a solution from an American world view bubble. | | Like e.g. the ground clearing of this thing is a catastrophe and | speed bumps are a standard solutions for reducing people going | gross over speed limits in many parts of the worlds (or the | streets are less maintained, or the streets go steep up and down | in the mountains). | | Similar for many parts of the world the _proven_ solution of cars | is to have much less of them (and in some cases avoid unnecessary | large cars). Which works out quite well in many cases. And has | many benefits, like less resource wasted, less noise pollution, | less air pollution, better local economics, etc. Many of this | factors still apply to electric cars in some way or another. | | The only areas where such a concept makes sense is if you: | | - have supper well maintained roads | | - either have a super high population density (e.g. Tokyo, or | Singapore) but then you probably don't have size for that fancy | setup you can put onto it | | - or are supper dependent on cars to a point where it feels | impossible to not rely on cars (many parts of the US) | hk__2 wrote: | The article really reads like "here is what some marketing people | did and based on zero other information here is what we could | expect or maybe not because as I said we don't have any | information but here is some text just so you think there is more | information when in fact there is nothing". | dpark wrote: | They're mocking the concept. That's why there's nothing | interesting here. They think the idea is stupid. | | _" Well, perhaps when this solution comes out, the government | will have made sure that every square foot of tarmac is | perfectly level everywhere in the world. Yes, I think that's | right. And anyway, in these clips previewing the car in a | futuristic environment, you don't ever see any bumps in the | road, now do you?"_ | dntrkv wrote: | Exactly my thoughts. I kept thinking the interesting part is | coming, but no, it's just someone's thoughts on a pre-alpha | concept that nobody even pretends will ever become a reality. | klyrs wrote: | I'd love to watch this drive over a speedbump | whatever1 wrote: | What about grip? Spheres have so much less contact area compared | to our cylindrical wheels | dpark wrote: | Do they? Tires only have significant contact area because they | deform. I would expect that with the right air pressure, these | would match the contact area. | | I'm more concerned about the fact that the tires have no actual | tread, which means they're going to be unusable in the rain. Of | course this whole thing makes no sense so none of this matters. | melenaboija wrote: | It may still be useful for warehousing and indoor spaces | dpark wrote: | I had that same immediate thought and then realized that it | doesn't make sense there either. The interchangeable tops seems | uninteresting and the spherical "wheels" don't seem to deliver | any real value over wheels, just more complexity. | carlmr wrote: | >The interchangeable tops seems uninteresting | | The interchangeable tops would be whats loaded in the | warehouse. | | >and the spherical "wheels" don't seem to deliver any real | value over wheels, just more complexity. | | They take away a lot of navigational complexity in a | warehouse setting where you don't have much space. And they | could do exactly the maneuvers necessary in that setting, | like bringing a package directly into its designated space, | unloading it and then driving out underneath. | rmason wrote: | Forget the imagined future. What's needed now is a sled complete | with batteries and electric motor(s) utilizing regular tires. You | know how many people in places like Detroit have the skill set to | build electric cars with that small amount of help? Create a | fiberglass body, source an interior and software and you're in | business. | | Admittedly you won't compete against Tesla or the Big 3 but there | are plenty of niches where you might. They won't all be sports | cars either. Taxis, police cars or special purpose delivery | vehicles. | | There are small profitable niches where no one has even | entertained the idea of battery powered cars yet. I love the idea | of a one pizza car company operating out of what now is an | abandoned warehouse in Detroit. | agumonkey wrote: | https://archive.md/xlM3c | trhway wrote: | there is no need for such radical approach. With electric motor | in the wheel instead of having a drive shaft, we can have regular | wheels turning 90 degree and thus having car move even sideways. | Someone wrote: | A concept car is an exercise aimed at keeping your designers | happy (might be cheaper and/or more effective than giving them a | bonus at keeping them motivated in their job) and at, maybe, | getting one or two good original and useful ideas. | | The customizability in this concept is the over-the-top version | of what Citroen offers for the new Ami, where about EUR60 will | buy you a set of stickers (https://ma-belle- | voiture.com/en/72-citroen-ami) (I also think the idea of having | different 'tops' for a car isn't new, but can't find an example | online) | tromp wrote: | Discussed 3 months ago at | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28745304 | at_a_remove wrote: | I seem to remember this about twenty years ago. Different | company, but the same concept -- everything was in a | "skateboard," with the main body being the batteries, each wheel | had its own motor, and you could swap out compartments. | yellow_lead wrote: | > How does the car cope with zero ground clearance and what seems | like no possible suspension travel. Well, perhaps when this | solution comes out, the government will have made sure that every | square foot of tarmac is perfectly level everywhere in the world. | | Can't tell if this is satire. | dathinab wrote: | Or it's from a POV of a supper car dependent person living in a | supper car dependent area where that seems like something which | will happen if humanity has a "good" future. | Schroedingersat wrote: | An electric car with a stationary bike in it. | | Yes. This is definitely the solution we need. There's no other | way to get exercise whilst transporting yourself. | lodovic wrote: | This makes sense as it has a 25 km/h top speed | Schroedingersat wrote: | So same as an ebike or upright bicycle then? ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-12-30 23:00 UTC)