Automotive

Published on December 30th, 2015 | by Subhash Nair

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Why the Ford Unicycle Patent is Not as Ridiculous as it Sounds

Recently, a patent filing surfaced that showed that Ford might be interested in developing an electric unicycle that used a car’s spare tyre as a wheel. Sure, it sounds just a little bit silly at first, but consider this. How many of us genuinely wouldn’t mind cycling or taking some form of alternative transportation to work? Many, if not most.

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PICTURED: Ryno Electric Unicycle

The problem is, most of the time the distance is just too much of an issue. So the alternative would be to drive part of the way there and use another form of personal transport from the parking lot. Imagine that. You drive to the car park that’s maybe further away from the city, where it’s less congested and parking’s cheaper and easier to find and use this contraption to get the rest of the way.

Goodyear banner dsf_650x85

When you return, place the spare wheel back in the boot and use the 12V port to recharge the electric motor. This would also give drivers an incentive to keep their spare tyres in good shape, while causing minimum wear to the spare tyre (an electric unicycle would undoubtably weigh less and go much slower than a car). Even if the top guns at Ford don’t give this project the green light, we certainly feel there’s some merit to it.


About the Author

Written work on dsf.my. @subhashtag on instagram. Autophiles Malaysia on Youtube.



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