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Comment by sloucher | Hacker News Reader

One of the things that make this possible is the sudden increase in space in [what was] the engine compartment, now that electric cars are more common.

Most small cars with petrol engines have nowhere near enough space for the wheel to turn like that.

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Now you're making me imagine a complicated arrangement with essentially 2 vertical hinges, where the wheel only swings out away from the car regardless which way it's turned. Then it needs no more room in the engine bay. It would rattle and klunk near the center/straight position, but aside from that it's physically possible. It would probably need some kind of belt to drive the axle so that it can bend around a pulley and a changing angle while still delivering the power. Ok I've gone off the deep end...

I think I get what you're saying. The wheels would stick out more on turns. I'm not sure how much of a problem that would be. I could see it potentially being a threat to bicyclists if you're passing one on a corner.

Also, if you tried to turn the wheels while at a stop it would cause the wheels to skid. There'd be a lot of friction in general. Ccoordinating the right and left wheels might be complicated enough you'd need to give each wheel its own power steering unit and have drive-by-wire. (Canoo is making a drive-by-wire car, so I guess it's not a regulatory impossibility these days.)

Other drive options include electric hub motors, or just sticking with rear-wheel drive.

The wheels would scrub like crazy. You just made me realize that essentially the wheels would spread apart on both sides of the car. As the left wheel swings away from the car, so is the right wheel, so either both wheels scrub or if on wheel is agsinst a curb, the other wheel scrubs twice as far.

From the article:

"EasyTurn is suitable for vehicles with rear-wheel drive, the usual setup in electric cars."

> the usual setup in electric cars

*The usual setup for luxury/performance electric cars.

Most of the lower end is FWD. The lowest end is all front wheel drive, since they're built on FWD ICE/hybrid chassis, with electric motors put where the ICE used to be. For example, the traction control light in my Fiat 500e rarely turns off. ;)

The rivian has individual-wheel drive (4 motors)

With a starting price of $67k (a few grand less than 2023 BMW X6), and a 0-60 that's a couple hundred ms from a 2022 Lamborghini, I think that could be considered well into the higher end of the car world.

That's neat it's independent though. I imagine it has a hard time getting stuck, even though I doubt most use it outside the concrete jungle.

Even in the rear of the vehicle where things don't need to steer packaging is a huge priority. Removing the engine won't change this. The tire was never really trying to conflict with the engine anyway. It was the structural bits of the car that kinda need to be there to support the front and the suspension that got in the way.

I expect the real packaging issue with a FWD car would be the driveshafts.

Exactly. If they had a CV shaft that could support these operating angles at an only slightly insane price point they would be telling us because that's a much bigger accomplishment than a steering linkage that has a lot of angle. Forklifts have a lot of angle and nobody cares. It's a question of straightforward tradeoffs.

I had an 80's era Vanagon with an insane turning angle. Lots of room in the front wheel wells. Could U turn that thing on most residential streets with cars parked on one side.

The engine compartment doesn't have to be in the front

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