Ford has patented a cool laterally tiltable car. The car can carry two passengers.
When driving around curves, it laterally tilts just like bicycles. It can make narrow cuts without tipping over. Ford’s car has improved ability to right itself up after tilting.
The car is designed to be narrow enough, to allow multiple cars to share same driving lane. This help improve the traffic flow in congested cities. Similarly, they can share parking spaces. The small size and the low weight of the car make it possible to reduce the emissions caused by the car.
Patent Information
Publication number: US9248857 B2
Patent Title: Laterally tiltable, multitrack vehicle
Publication type: Grant
Application number: US 14/201,586
Publication date: 2 Feb 2016
Filing date: 7 Mar 2014
Priority date: 7 Mar 2013
Inventors: Robert Spahl, Edmund Halfmann, Torsten Gerhardt, Marc Simon
Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, Llc
Abstract – A laterally tiltable, multitrack vehicle is disclosed. The vehicle includes a vehicle body and at least three wheels, first and second wheels of the three wheels being assigned to a common axle to form a first wheel pair. The vehicle includes at least one wheel control part suspending each of the first and second wheels of the wheel pair from the vehicle body. At least one resilient element supports each wheel control part on the vehicle body. The resilient element has a non-linear spring characteristic with a spring rate which increases in a compression direction and decreases in a rebound direction. The vehicle may be a motor vehicle.
