These Freaky Omni-Capable Wheels Would Make Parallel Parking Stupidly Easy

This guy made a set of wheels with a 'magic' rolling surface that means they can move a car around on the spot. Imagine how easy this would make parallel parking!

Matt Robinson

30 Jun 2016

While the surfaces of these prototype rims - built by the uploader himself - seem to be slick and therefore useless for the road, he claims that they “can have the same build characteristics (siping, grooves, rubber compounds etc.) as regular tires”. What’s particularly interesting is the wheels are bolt-on items on a regular Toyota Echo which hasn’t needed to be modified to accept them.

It does seem like a cool concept, but we’d want to know exactly how much they weigh - you’d think the new rims would be on the heavy side, adding a hell of a lot of unsprung mass.

Creator William Liddiard calls these “proof of concept prototypes”, so it’ll be interesting to see how he develops the idea.

Via Reddit Videos

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

and it gives a decent stanced look lol

Dat fitment doe

“Glitch in the Matrix” Stance.

As someone who was in robotics and used these as a scrap robot, these suck. They not only require 4 different motors to power each wheel, but require a special controller and 50/50 weight to function properly. They are a nice idea, however they are complete garbage for any actual use. So many flaws to benefit strafing.

PROOF OF CONCEPT

Fake drifting with these would be stupid easy

You’d be able to tell your friends “Hey, look how slow I can go and hold a drift!” then creep around a corner.

https://youtu.be/r-OAzXqLd0Y Reminds me if this…

This is by 100% the better solution…

Same working principle?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEF2fGDKCEs

can you do a burnout with it?

The one flaw I immediately saw in the system is possible debris like little stones, sand, glass shards and so on sticking to the rubber, then being sucked into the mechanism, where it’s free to wreak havoc. Among other flaws, I wouldn’t ever expect this to be reliable. Plus, has anybody noticed that the footage is fast forwarded, yet it’s still painfully slow?