Did you know
In addition to designing cars
Car designers are also busy applying for various patents
Some car companies have More than 1,000 patents will be applied for every year
As the saying goes, "The forest is big, and there are all kinds of birds."
So many patents
Some people are very imaginative, The whimsical idea
cannot be applied to mass-produced cars immediately
It doesn’t matter whether it can be used
Let’s take advantage of the “pits” first< /p>
The design that may seem weird now
Maybe it will appear on the street one day
Look at the increasing popularity of autonomous driving and human-computer interaction
p>
It seemed incredible in the past
Now it has become commonplace
Maybe some weird patent
is the direction of future development
Odd 1? A car with a "long tail"
Have you ever seen the tail of a small animal? Have you ever seen a car with a tail? In 2016, Toyota applied for a weird patent: a retractable car tail. What's the use of this tail? The tail will grow longer as the car accelerates, which is said to significantly improve the car's aerodynamic efficiency and effectively reduce fuel consumption. When extended, it resembles the auger of an earth-boring vehicle, looks like a tunnel boring machine running backwards, and can be retracted into the trunk when parked. However, we don’t know how it works specifically, and there are still issues such as whether it will affect the line of sight and the safe distance from the car behind when it is extended.
Qi Pa 2? Hit someone and then stick them to the car? !
Autonomous driving is developing so rapidly, and its safety is one of the issues that people are worried about. In 2016, Google registered a patent for a sticky coating for self-driving cars that can reduce damage to pedestrians when they hit people. When a self-driving car hits a pedestrian, the special coating on the car's hood, front bumper, and sides will firmly stick to the pedestrian, so that the person will not be injured twice. Because when a pedestrian is involved in a car accident, the injuries suffered by the pedestrian are not only the impact of the car, but also the injuries of rolling on the ground or being run over by other vehicles. The vehicle's sticky coating is also covered with an eggshell-shaped protective coating so that the sticky layer will not be contaminated with dust while driving. When a car hits an object, the protective coating cracks and the sticky layer is exposed.
But how to remove someone stuck in the car? Google's patent shows that they will use a "removable adhesive" that can be released after a period of time. The new concept could reduce trauma when a car hits a pedestrian, but Google hasn't said whether it will apply it to its self-driving cars. To be honest, this one is a bit like "human fly paper".
Qi Pa 3? There are cars front and back, guess where I’m going?
To facilitate two-way travel, high-speed rail and subway are designed with double heads; cars also have double heads. In 1920, an auto repair shop called Mueller assembled itself an advertising car: a Ford double-headed Model T. In October 1953, a company called MAC Alamagny applied for a patent for a "double-headed car". The car in the patent had a car that pivoted front and rear and could be driven from both ends. Later, someone actually built a double-headed car. In the British crazy car show "Top Gear", "Captain Tortoise" James May's "Salfa Romebo" was built by Alfa Romeo 164 Made together with the front end of Saab 9000. For a double-headed car, you don't even need to use reverse gear, just change to the driving position.
Qi Pa 4? Batman’s tank dream come true?
In the automotive industry, Ford is known as the "patent fiend" and has applied for a variety of patents. Its persistence in patents is not only reflected in research and development, but also in the acquisition of patents. In 2017, Ford bought a patent from three Germans that could combine a car and a motorcycle into one. The patent places a pure electric motorcycle between the driver and passenger of the car. When necessary, open the hood of the car and the motorcycle can be separated from the car. After separation, both cars and motorcycles will be able to drive themselves. The car is powered by in-wheel motors and a rear-mounted engine. In the combined state, the motorcycle wheels will not touch the ground. But under special circumstances, the motorcycle wheels can also touch the ground to provide additional power to the car.
The original intention of this patent was to deal with the problem of urban road congestion, but the more you look at it, the more it looks like the cool chariot in the movie "Batman."
Wonderful 5? DIY left and right rudders
In 1994, the Channel Tunnel was opened, and people could finally drive to and from the European continent and the British Isles. However, the driving directions of the roads in the two places are different, and the position of the steering wheel is also different. France has left-hand drive and the UK has right-hand drive. So BMW engineers came up with a revolutionary solution. They invented the first "interactive steering wheel" in the history of automobiles. The specific operation only requires four steps: open the glove box, pull out the instrument panel, remove the steering wheel, and install it on the Get in the passenger seat. However, they did not explain how to solve the throttle and brake problems.
Strange 6? The windshield cannot be wiped clean, so use the electromagnetic wiper
Ordinary wipers always miss some corners, which makes drivers with obsessive-compulsive disorder feel itchy. Wiper systems with multiple wiper blades are usually complex in design and have limited cleaning capabilities, and stains that cannot be cleaned may affect normal driving. Traditional wiper systems have many mechanical parts that wear out quickly due to the repetitive movement of the wipers. On electric vehicles, the movement of the wipers also requires additional power from the on-board battery, which also reduces the vehicle's driving range. .
To this end, Tesla applied for a new patent-electromagnetic wiper. This design patent changes the dual wipers into a single blade. Unlike traditional wipers, the wiper developed by Tesla uses electromagnetic principles. Behind the hood, at the bottom of the windshield, there are two magnetic rails designed, and a magnetic slider connects the wiper arm and wiper blade. When current passes through the magnets and coils, the slider slides on the rails, like a maglev train, and the wiper blades move quickly across the windshield. Perhaps for fuel vehicles, the energy saved is negligible, but for electric vehicles, any improvement in the efficiency of any component will increase the cruising range and will also be beneficial to the safety of autonomous driving. However, this patent is still in the early stages of research and development, and we don’t know whether it will be put into mass production. We still have to wait.
Which one are you most looking forward to?
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.