[HN Gopher] Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolu...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Hyundai Uni Wheel electric drive system could revolutionize EV
       design
        
       Author : yread
       Score  : 21 points
       Date   : 2023-11-30 10:19 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.autoblog.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.autoblog.com)
        
       | thedrbrian wrote:
       | So we could have a slightly bigger inside to the usual EV SUV.
       | woo
        
         | LargeWu wrote:
         | A smaller battery would imply fewer resources required per
         | vehicle, which will be important as demand for batteries
         | increases.
        
         | pornel wrote:
         | Optimistically, we could have smaller cars without compromising
         | on cabin space or storage.
         | 
         | ...except when large SUVs are bought as a status symbol, or the
         | race to drive the biggest tank on the road in defense from the
         | other tanks or the road.
        
         | neuralRiot wrote:
         | Bigger inside than modern SUVs? What does people transport? How
         | many people ride regularly? What size are people?
        
           | 4death4 wrote:
           | Two adults, two kids in car seats, and a dog. With that, even
           | a mid-size SUV has no space for cargo. If you drive a sedan,
           | you have to leave the dog at home.
        
             | neuralRiot wrote:
             | Maybe if they don't put a foot-wide console in the middle
             | there would be more space for people and cargo.
        
             | IlPeach wrote:
             | That's why station wagons and vans exist. SUVs do not
             | provide more space, they just occupy more (on top of being
             | dangerous to others)
        
           | redwall_hp wrote:
           | The average number of occupants in a road vehicle is under
           | two, yet they drive a massive tank. The typical pickup truck
           | on the road also has an empty bed.
           | 
           | Meanwhile, I can fit four people and some light cargo
           | comfortably in my hatchback, or put all the seats down and
           | carry more cargo than the typical SUV.
        
       | igor47 wrote:
       | As a drivetrain nerd, this is awesome!
        
       | mech987987 wrote:
       | More mass inside the wheel increases unsprung weight and worsens
       | some ride/suspension characteristics of a vehicle-
       | 
       | that being said the tradeoff might not be too bad in this case.
        
         | pornel wrote:
         | It's just reduction gears, not the motor, so hopefully it can
         | be made light enough. Shame that their promo didn't say a word
         | about the mass.
         | 
         | Quad-motor all-wheel torque vectoring sounds awesome tho.
        
       | sam_goody wrote:
       | Is there some way that this or similar can be copied by all
       | automakers, or is this all patented by Kia/Hyundai in such a way
       | that most improvements are completely locked in?
        
       | olyjohn wrote:
       | Maybe I can't tell from the video, or maybe they're not working
       | on this yet... But what about the steering wheels? Surely the
       | driveshaft will have to have a joint on it on the front wheels in
       | order for the front wheels to turn? Also this doesn't look like
       | it would deal with camber changes which are needed to keep your
       | tires flat on the road when cornering...
        
         | toss1 wrote:
         | I also notice that unsprung weight was not mentioned. The
         | "Uniwheel" clearly has advantages over CV joints, but it also
         | looks like a significant increase in unsprung weight.
         | 
         | They also gloss over "splitting the motor". It looks like 4
         | individual wheel motors, which would indeed be optimal for the
         | torque vectoring that they mention.
         | 
         | Still, looks like a very cool development. I hope it works out
         | to be a real advance
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-11-30 23:02 UTC)