What Should Be Next For Electric Vehicles: Real All-Wheel Steering

If you’ve ever struggled to parallel park a car (or any vehicle), you can understand why there have been some crazy ideas over the years about how this complex maneuver can be better achieved through technology. At times, the solution has been effective, and not completely inelegant. But alas, cost and complexity have conspired to keep keep bumper makers and driving schools in business all these years. It’s only been recently that sensor-driven self-driving tech has been up to the task of hitting the mark (and not the curb).

The resurgence of electric vehicles has brought this and other maneuverability issues back into focus due to the way EVs are powered. With a gas-powered vehicle, making wheels turn and provide motive power is a complex endeavor, even if front wheel drive has been largely figured out over the history of the ICE-powered car.

With an EV, it’s still complex engineering, but putting electric motors inside wheels is also a known quantity that just needs refinement, and once a vehicle maker puts the tech into play, the way we drive cars, trucks, buses and just about anything with four or more wheels could radically change.

One of the innovators in the burgeoning field of in-wheel motors is Protean Electric and their Protean360+ technology, and it holds the promise of truly amazing maneuverability (and new marketing angles) for vehicles of all types in the near future. The gist of the tech is this: The electric motor and braking mechanism are located inside the wheel itself, while an armature centered above the wheel anchors the wheel to the vehicle. The result is a wheel that can turn 360 degrees under the vehicle, which is a both a bit goofy but also extremely useful. Cars could rotate in their own radius, or “dog track” around an obstacle or lane change, not to mention the enhancement to maneuverability at any speed, and in any number of directions.

And while it may not yet seem like a hot-rodder’s dream tech due to unsprung weight and complexity, it could be a saving grace for many other kinds of transportation, especially large vehicles that have to operate in tight quarters: city buses, school buses, delivery trucks, semis, large vehicles operated by emergency responders and so forth. Of course, hook-and-ladder fire trucks have been operating with human-operated rear steering for decades, but this kind of all-wheel electric steering technology could them get in and out of even tighter situations.

As the technology develops, it will likely find its way into more performance-oriented vehicles. While four-wheel-steering has been available on a small number of vehicles over the years, the rear “steering” is usually limited to a few degrees of offset, which is handy to be sure but a far cry from what is now possible in an EV. But consider the possibilities in rally racing, Formula E, or even rock crawling. Having independent and cohesive control over every wheel of a vehicle would mean great control in almost every way, and would lead to lower lap times and,of course, ever safer vehicles when partnered with the quickly growing fields of collision-avoidance and self-driving tech.

It’s just going to take a car or truck maker willing to think a bit different about how they can turn the corner on electric vehicles, which seems to be almost everyone these days.