So you are struggling to get into or out of that parking space? Maybe you just find doing donuts a bit too difficult? Well the answer lies in a 1927 invention that, quite honestly, looks like it might need a few more fail-safe add-ons if it’s going to hit mass production any time soon. Funny though…
As you can see above, the Airtax Cobra uses a unique wheel system to enable sideways and fore-aft movement. I think this will be very useful for applications such as the ‘Cherry picker’ one shown in the video where space is often at a premium.
Airtrax make a wide range of warehouse vehicles with this system already. They describe their special wheel as “omni directional” meaning multi-directions can be achieved. Control of the Airtrax Cobra is via a joystick rather than the usual steering wheel, although many cherry pickers use this type of control already. One particular plus is the ability to completely rotate through 360 degrees within their own length.
Impressive stuff and I’m sure we’ll see more from this type of technology in both controlled and remote-controlled vehicles.
Well, it has been hinted at in film-making and it makes absolute sense (if you see a future for wheeled personal transport that is). This radical car parking and valeting solution is as automated as it gets for now and is available in Liechtenstein. Pez dispensing aficionados get ready for a treat.
Well it’s a damn site more impressive on an engineering level than this early 20th century solution to parking but is it really a step in the right direction? My question has to be do we need to queue for the robotic arm now? Do you think that this is the future or merely something that solves the wrong problem? Let us know below.
If you are just after some modern parking ideas, then you may want to check out this luxury apartment car storage idea too:
While Plasti Dip is popular in the US, it’s certainly less common in Europe and Asia. If you’re not familiar with this plastic coating, it is, in essence, a removable finish that you can leave on for as long as you want. Despite the word ‘dip’ in the name, it is actually a spray-on process. When you are fed up with it and fancy a colour change, simply peel it off and start again. The original finish underneath is left just as it was. Plasti Dip leaves no residue and even is said to protect the paint. With lots of new colors being released there is a wealth of choice available too including some very special reflective and colour-changing paints.
You can also just do the treatment to badges & grilles (think “de-chroming”), individual panels and even wheels. The video below shows a brand new Porsche 911 Turbo having the Plasti Dip treatment. The results are astonishing, although I wonder how much more work is involved in getting things like inner door sills, engine compartment etc finished the same way. I’m guessing they generally leave that.
It’s something that you can do yourself too with a relatively low outlay on equipment. Success stories abound and you can spend a good few hours watching videos on the subject. So what are you waiting for?
Here’s a great video we got sent, showing an impressive tyre technology used by the military. Obviously, the lack of punctures is something that is a huge bonus in warfare situations and this tech could rapidly become adopted, both on military vehicles and in the general automotive arena.
We do note however that under braking the whole vehicle ‘rocks’, something that the Michelin ‘Twheel’ suffered with too:
Time will tell if these shall become viable replacements for your favourite pneumatic tyres, but I’ll follow their development with interest.