Many years ago I visited Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the flat parts of the city center, people would parallel-park their cars and leave them in neutral (very few cars had automatic transmissions) and without setting the parking brake. When you arrived and found a parking spot, there would be a man that, for some standard tip, would push all the cars in front or behind you, one at a time, until they were all bumper to bumper. This expanded the slot where you wanted to park, making your parking very easy.<p>When you wanted to leave, he would likewise push cars in front or behind you to widen the slot where you were, making it easy for you to pull out.
Parallel parking just isn't hard enough to justify the expense and complexity (same thing, really) of adding this device to a car. This is a lot of gizmosity to solve a problem that can be solved with a couple hours of practice on a quiet street.
I think it never made it big because:<p>1. Thinking about having to parallel park makes sure you are less likely to bump the cars in front and behind. Moving the front in and then swinging the back in seems like a good way to swing the back into another car.<p>2. Parking wasn't as much of a nightmare in the early 30s. Then WWII happened and that metal would have been an excess. By the 50s it was a "failed" idea.<p>Having 90 degree car wheels (that can only go 90 degrees at ~rest) combined with the sensors on a modern EV might make it feasible. But I'm not a mechanical engineer so "90 degree car wheels" might have some other feasibility problems, even at rest.
Reversing cameras essentially have the same function. They are amazing too btw. The one change to cars in the past 50 years that i really care about.<p>I don't mind having a carburetor. I don't mind wind down windows. I don't mind manual gearboxes. But I demand reversing cameras. It lets you know exactly where the car is as you parallel park.
There was another idea I remember reading about in the 70s or 80s in (I think) <i>Omni Magazine</i>: Four wheel steering: All four wheels can be rotated. with the steering wheel. Turn the wheels to a full 90° and you can then move the car sideways into a parallel space. A lot more practical than this plan which pretty much destroys all the trunk space. Especially, with an EV where you can connect motors directly to each wheel, I can see this working out very nicely.
I remember seeing something similar on <i>Beyond 2000</i> back in the 80s. It was a set of small, swivelable wheels that deployed and allowed you to slew your car into the space.
I wonder how much more functionality would be needed on top of a state-of-the-art active suspension, to enable the car to "walk" sideways into a parking spot.
I had this random shower thought the other day that electric cars could easily have more than (powered) 4 wheels. Then I realized they are plenty fast already...
also: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecanum_wheel" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecanum_wheel</a><p>"The mecanum wheel is an omnidirectional wheel design for a land-based vehicle to move in any direction"<p>Would be interesting to have a bunch of these extend out from below the car. It would double as an inbuilt jack too.