6 ms·
Gyrocar
- m3at 7y agoThe wikipedia article is a bit short on pictures, so here are more of this very interesting design: https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/gyro-x-1967 https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/gyro-x-...
- et2o 7y agoThese are pretty cool. Lit Motors in the Bay Area has a modern take on the same idea: https://youtu.be/JMYdUwUVE6w https://youtu.be/JMYdUwUVE6w
- FR10 7y agoSadly that is from 2013, I wonder what is the reason it didn't get developed further.
- et2o 7y agoBeside the question of "Why", looking at the Glassdoor reviews doesn't inspire confidence.
- 52-6F-62 7y agoNot sure. It was hard to find more info. It appears Danny Kim was in a pretty serious test-track accident: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lianeyvkoff/2016/02/18/what-immobility-taught-this-transportation-ceo-about-mobility/#44db249058c4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/lianeyvkoff/2016/02/18/what-imm...
- agumonkey 7y agoNot to be confused with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrobus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrobus
- mr__y 7y agoAlso not to be confused with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyro_(food) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyro_(food)
- alfanick 7y agoAlso to be confused with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyros
- dredmorbius 7y agoAll etymologically linked to the Greek γύρος and ultimately PIE "*geu-". In the case of the Greek wrap, the reference isn't to the "rounded" pita shell, but the "turned" meat, roasted on a spit. https://www.etymonline.com/word/gyre https://www.etymonline.com/word/gyre https://www.etymonline.com/word/gyro- https://www.etymonline.com/word/gyro-
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- seanhunter 7y agoIt's a fascinating design, but "Why?" is the question that leaps to mind. Once you get above a certain mass it just seems really beneficial to have a design that is stable at rest. (I'm speaking as someone who has had to pick up heavy motorcycles which have fallen or been knocked over a few times) So what's the benefit of a Gyrocar to compensate for that? A motorbike has the benefit of really dynamic performance coming from the ability to lean in to corners etc, but it seems to me that this thing would work more like a tricycle (ie no countersteer or lean) because the gyroscopes would keep the body of the car level.
- nabla9 7y agoI don't know, but these things are stable at rest. They needs support only after the spinning stops.
- jiofih 7y agoThe parent probably meant “at rest” as in unpowered.
- seanhunter 7y agoYeah exactly. The spinning parts at rest as well as the rest of the vehicle. Having to have a wheel descend to stop it from falling over makes you wonder why not just have that wheel there all along? I suppose you could have a kick stand or something but those get a bit sketchy if the thing is heavy (which it would be) and getting it to level initially could be challenging.
- dharmab 7y agoWhile it's certainly a neat idea given the technology of the time, we have better modern solutions. BMW has fully self-driving motorcycles they use for testing, and Honda has demoed a motorcycle that self-balances at rest.
- rzwitserloot 7y agoFewer wheels theoretically is better for fuel economy, in that air drag can be reduced more than wheel contact with the road, especially if you are freed to design the body such that there are only 2 points of contact with the road instead of 4. The gyro stabilization should also avoid skidding or aquaplaning sideways. 2 wheels are also theoretically more manuevrable. In practice this stuff mostly wasn't achieved, and there are also plenty of downsides, but then few people tried.
- NamTaf 7y agoIf you're ever in York in the UK, there's a cool model of Brennan's Gyrostatic monorail car in the National Railway Museum. I had no idea about gyrocars before that and was blown away by the technical prowess of the design from the early 1900s. His wasn't an automobile as such, but rather a rail vehicle that operated on a single rail, just like a monorail. His actually pre-dates this, with him patenting the design in 1903, developing a working model in 'about 1907' (according to my photos of the display) and a full-sized one in 1909. That suggests, assuming the parent wiki is correct, that the idea of a gyro automobile was described in fantasy after a gyro rail vehicle was fully developed. I find it quite interesting that it took that long for the idea to leap from one mode of transport to the other, and it probably speaks to how unfamiliar the automobile was as a concept even in the first decade of the 1900s. His wiki [1] provides a bit more info, and links to the article on the gyro monorail car [2] with a wealth of detailed information about the design (much of which maps to the gyrocar). Fascinating design. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brennan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brennan [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyro_monorail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyro_monorail
- erk__ 7y agoIt was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title, visited the museum earlier this year, the model is a bit hidden in the back of the museum. It is a great museum and they have so many interesting things there.
- nsxwolf 7y agoDo the wheels really add gyroscopic effects? Some years ago the revelation that gyroscopic effects weren't what keep a bicycle up rocked the world, then everyone seemed to forget about that and talks about gyroscopic effects again. Is that the case here?
- caconym_ 7y agoI don't know if it really "rocked the world". Probably most people never heard it or discounted it as soon as they did because they "knew" it was wrong. Motorcycle wheels are heavier and spin faster, so I'd expect the gyroscopic forces to be greater at speed, but the fact that you can go walking speed (or slower) on a motorcycle without falling over seems to disprove gyroscopic effects as a primary factor in stability.
- dredmorbius 7y agoThere are different modes of stability for wheeled vehicles. Gyroscopic effects are far more significant at speed. Though the ability to steer into a fall and move centre of gravity under centre of support is a key dynamic, particularly at low (or no) speed.
- innovator116 7y agoThere was a Chinese knockoff of Lit Motors. Been following https://thrustcycle.com/index.html https://thrustcycle.com/index.html An Indian startup http://www.ligermobility.com/ http://www.ligermobility.com/ is also developing self balancing EV for crowded Indian cities.
- dang 7y agoRelated from 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10852421 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10852421 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10611187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10611187
- newnewpdro 7y ago> Steering a motorcycle is done by precessing the front wheel. I've encountered this claim so many times over the years. The precession force I've observed when riding motorcycles, by moving the bars after the front wheel leaves the ground, is simply not that great. It's obviously not the primary force steering a motorcycle. With the front tire in contact with the road, motorcycles can appear to steer from precession because they initiate turns unintuitively via inverted counter-steering. What's really happening is when you initiate a turn, the point at the road:tire interface immediately veers in the direction you pointed because of the tire's grip with the road. But since this point is well below the center of gravity of the motorcycle, instead of steering the entire bike in that direction, the bike falls down and leans in the opposite direction. Thanks to the angle of the fork there's a complementary geometric relationship between the bike's lean angle and the front wheel's steering angle in the direction of the lean. These are the primary mechanisms steering a motorcycle. The same mechanism is present in automobiles, which also have a significant distance separating the road:tire interface from the center of gravity. But in those vehicles it's exhibited as body roll, which is then necessarily resisted by the suspension components like springs and anti-sway bars. Nobody claims precession causes automobile body roll, because it's more obvious what's going on there - and the driver doesn't steer backwards briefly at the start of every turn. Precession is a fun demonstration in science class, and does enable a motorcycle rider to exert some control when on one wheel. But it simply isn't the primary mechanism steering a motorcycle.
- trhway 7y agoone wheel bikes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eVbdbMPdq4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eVbdbMPdq4
- msadowski 7y agoRecently there was a project on Hackaday where someone created an R/C gyrocar: https://hackaday.com/2019/09/06/who-needs-four-wheels-when-youve-got-a-gyro/ https://hackaday.com/2019/09/06/who-needs-four-wheels-when-y... The project is quite neat!
- headgasket 7y agowhy not use the mass of the battery as the gyro's flywheel (s)? You could also store energy (accelerate this mass on breaking) for even better regen (I presume recharge breaking is less efficient than the 95 efficiency of current traction motors). Another plus is easier ajustable ground clearance since there's only 2 points of contact; for an off-road-able vehicle that's a big plus; while at highway speeds you want a low center of gravity and less drag. Will we see a 2 wheeled pickup truck reveal tomorrow? A BUV? (Battery Ultimate Vehicle) That would be "cyber from the future" alright. Dreaming out loud, but a ppl carrier (8-10 seater based on this would be totally out of this world)
- bediger4000 7y ago> why not use the mass of the battery as the gyro's flywheel (s)? I'm going to guess that the battery technology of 1912 was lead-acid. 200 lbs of sulfuric acid spinning at 3600 RPM was probably too much of a safety hazard, even for the laissez-faire standards of the day. Also, slip rings, which would be necessary to get the current out of a spinning batter probably weren't all that good.
- headgasket 7y agogood points with regards to 1912. But li-ion batteries that are also gyro flywheels, and breaking regen energy storage, isn't that an interesting idea?
- themagician 7y agoThis just seems like a motorcycle with extra steps.
- ScottBurson 7y agoHow can Wikipedia have a gyrocar article and not mention the Gyro-X?? https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/gyro-x-1967 https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/gyro-x-... https://www.wired.com/story/gyro-x-lane-motor-museum/ https://www.wired.com/story/gyro-x-lane-motor-museum/
- dredmorbius 7y agoIt's a Wiki. It's editable. By you.
- ScottBurson 7y agoSorry, no time.