Magnetic Big Wheel Or Ring Of Death?

@Heliophage: lulz. thts a good one

@Purple Dave: Pwnt.

@Justinpaulson:
Seems like this could be fixed by just getting a real car.

Purple Dave

Which reminds me, I want a gun on mine. @Stubborn Ass Hat STOLE his AVATAR:

ralfhutter

ring of death you say?
does it come in red?

Titus_Andronicus

@ripfire:

Aw shit, this guy did take it literally from Garrison.

litbruin

@kOtic:

Yeah, this guy has watched one too many southpark episodes. Good thing he's not a fan of phallic interfaces.

litbruin

@Hello Mister Walrus: Thats only a problem if you don't like awesome.

Xeno

Anyone defending the technology of this thing deserves one as their only means of transportation.

nikko1221

Seriously? While it may look cool in a futurist sort of perspective... how practical is it... really? I would never see myself or any one else, asside from someone with too much money and know sense, owning or using one.

Mako

@.- -. --- -. -.-- -- --- ..- ... / .. ... / .-.. . --. .....: Shhh! Don't tell him that if he lives on Earth he is actually living in a magnetic field!

@geekpi: seems like this could all be fixed with a simple stability wheel out of the bottom of the cockpit...don't even have to power it, just have it to keep from rolling backwards.

@geekpi: A designer's job isn't to be an engineer, which is what you seem to be suggesting. A designer's job is to design. Which they'll stop doing the day that an engineer makes something that's not totally disgusting-looking.

It's nice to look down on artists, but I'm sick of engineers who have no conception of art, and no ability to make anything beautiful.

Also, maybe that's just a picture of the thing in motion. Or, maybe that's just a demo picture and who cares about the physics.

George Lucas has been on the phone, he said they can f**k right off, it was his idea.

Where is the preview button!!!!!

@os_2: How much run-up would you need to make it up the hills of San Francisco?

Dayv

@brodie7838: i scrolled down to see if anyone else have noticed it too

bishara

That was totally my idea! I suppose I won't get credit though will I. I tell you, telepathy exists and people use it to steal my ideas!
I dunno though. It seems a bit impractical with so much wheel. Why not make it a bit smaller, as in to only surround the passengers?

I want one

@DeusExMach:
And it looks to me like the rear hatch is used sorta like a kickstand while the thing isn't moving, so it doesn't just roll backwards until the pod is resting on the ground. Which is what geekpi was asking about. Keeping the thing in the air while it's moving is an entirely different matter, but when it has to stop, that would be even harder than figuring out how to leave your bicycle perfectly balanced on two tires when you walk away from it. So, expect to roll onto your back whenever you hit a red light.

Purple Dave

@PN - Dances with Wolves:
So, magnetic fields make you think of cancer? I'd better stay away from any and all electricity.
Well, wait a minute, you're on Giz here, get out!

@everyone except geekpi: Okay, I'm a (presently drunkish) science geek for a living. You all suck for lack of recognition that a gyro is a sensor feeding back into a motor that applies the necessary correcting force (or torque as the case may be). A gyro doesn't magically keep an object upright without applying the requisite energy.

Sitting someone back on the side of a wheel as prettily drawn in this rendering adds an additional lever arm to the necessary lever arm to keep that person at a distance from the otherwise stationary center of gravity. Without a correcting torque, the assembly as a whole would roll backwards until the system as a whole would have its center of gravity aligned to where the wheel contacts with the ground.

Gyros are neat. But stupidly applied they waste energy. Put the cabin above the center of the wheel to minimize constant waste torque (eventually, energy).

/i's been drinking but kinda know what i'm talking about

Fractal the Meek

Ring of Death? That can't be right. It's not even Red.

RuBBa_cHiKiN

@kanenas: Third leg? Are you sure you don't mean the entry hatch? I'd sure hope that didn't pop open every time you stop.

@kanenas: Except that as an admirer of physics, simplicity and genuine greeninity (C), I would add that in motion that leg does precisely crap in keeping the pilot upright. The gyro would demand the maintenance of a constant correcting force that's otherwise completely unnecessary if the designer had put the COG roughly in the middle of the side view of the wheel.

Still... looks damn pretty.

Fractal the Meek

Eco Friend does not appear to understand that all electric motors are driven by interacting magnetic fields. Putting aside room temperature superconducting fluids (WTF?): What you have here are electric motors where the armature doubles as the wheel - a common design choice used in those solar car endurance races. OK they're wierd arsed armature-wheels but that's all they are.

ziffelbat

@geekpi: what most people mean by gyros are the gyroscopic sensors. these 'gyros' don't change the center of gravity. Unless there is a force that these 'gyros' are directing, then they can do nothing by themselves.

Now by looking at this picture, there is no ACTUAL gyro that would create a real gyroscopic force while at REST. When moving it would balance like any uni/bicycle.

So, in a last minute move, the artist/designer added a 3rd leg to the thing: it can be viewed on the left side of the picture. There, now it can balance while not moving. BTW you can find a video of some daredevil that converted a standard motorbike into a motor powered unicycle. The results are not that nice. google it

kanenas

@geekpi: Cheers, mate. The only way that this pretty picture is satisfied by natural equilibrium is for the center of mass to be at the center of the ring from the side view. Otherwise, yes. What all these people say is true. You need a gyroscopic sensor coupled to a motor that keeps the center of mass however far away as necessary to make that pretty rendering accurate.

Fractal the Meek

Does this not remind anyone of South Park?

@geekpi: actually gyroscopes could essentially change the center of gravity to a different point.

@Nick: I think you mean "body", not bike.

TurboTexas

@LessthanZach: Notice where the center of gravity is with the ibot? It's in the very center of the device. The same goes for the segway. That is not how this magnetic big wheel is however. Put someone into the cab of the big wheel and the center of balance will be greatly behind the center of the wheel's radius. It would have to remain in motion to stay vertical. The moment it stopped, without 'legs' to balance the cab, it would be impossible to remain upright.

I don't care how many gyros and motors you put into it, it would be akin to having to keep a unicycle upright, if it's rider was hanging 3 feet off the back. It would not work. The center of balance needs to be at the center of the wheel.

Looks like one of those things off of Star Wars

Albert Lee Blundell

Not here! Potholes will defeat the average tank!

alexryia

Good luck turning... or stopping.

@LessthanZach: I agree with you and DeusEx, we can do some crazy stuff with gyros, but I wonder how it keeps the gondola up on the 'back' of the wheels at rest? If it physically locked itself there, it would just roll backwards until gravity was happy. I suppose it could apply power to the wheels to keep in in place, but those would have to be some sweet batteries.

It'd be an interesting ride if the... fenders? ever hit the ground at speed, too.

for some strange reasons, this song just popped in me head....

earth's most powerful soldiers...
are earth's last chance...
against the spiiiiraaaalll zooooonnneee.....

mocax

Heh, rear-entry.

tobz1000

@reluttr: Exactly what I thought, or a hailfire tank.
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