14 DAY TRIAL // The wheel was one of the greatest inventions of prehistoric times, and it also happens to be one of the very few which didn't really change in shape and role much over the millennia. Now, though, it seems this is finally changing.
Wheels are round circles or disks that spin around beneath a larger object, allowing said object to be easily pushed or pulled around by a person or other vehicle.
It was the prehistoric man's solution against the combined power of friction and inertia, and by extension, the force of gravity.
However, despite the different materials and designs that wheels have taken over the centuries, they're sill more or less the same as they ever were. Now, though, a Japanese company called Denso is ready to change the basic nature of wheels.
Behold the intelligent, self-driving wheel
Rather than a disk or circle on which something is balanced, the new wheel looks more like a ball stuck under a partially hollowed out support. The idea is to provide multi-directional support without any obvious steering method.
That's not even half of it though. The real kicker is that the wheel is actually a robot that can operate with a certain degree of autonomy.
Not only that, but it also integrates wireless communication capabilities, which means that it can be remotely controlled.
That's right, it's not some bigger robot or car that is being controlled, but the wheels themselves. It allows them to be used in a lot of things, instead of just indispensable but ultimately ordinary components of some thing or other.
The standard version of the wheels has them rolling around, meaning that when a cart steers, the wheels on one side would move faster or slower than the others.
There's a more expensive version too, which has an extra motor that steers the wheel itself, allowing its orientation to change at any moment, even if it's not actually moving.
Applications for the self-contained motor wheels
Shopping carts are one, and we've already alluded to it. Strollers are another, and you can be sure that new type of sports equipment could be made with them too, if ever a smaller iteration is released. Training skateboards come to mind. Maybe the concept will be applied to suitcases and trunks too.
We suppose that the age of the slob is closer than ever, now that we won't even have to push or pull our luggage around. Woe is us.
