REE says they’ve distilled the essence of a vehicle into a single “smart corner” that packs precise steering, active suspension and electric drive into a single upright sub-assembly that, via software and drive-by-wire controls, can be mounted in a chassis of your choice – and immediate results.
It’s an interesting idea, doing away with traditional chassis and suspension design issues like resolving roll center, Ackerman (or reverse Ackerman) steering angles, and more. All of that is done by the computers, which know exactly where each corner is and what it’s doing in… well, if not real-time, as close to real-time as a modern CANbus allows.
Daniel Barel rides a REE ‘Skateboard’
Image courtesy of REE Auto.
In this episode, we talk about all that — including how REE handles what sounds like it would be unsprung weight — and explore some of the different “mission-specific vehicle” configurations possible with the “business smart corner.” ” ” technology. From golf carts to supercars to class 5 commercial vans.
It’s great stuff and takes so much of the heavy engineering out of the equation that just about anyone can design an EV that will work right out of the box. They even have a configurator on their website that lets you enter your specs, play around with battery sizes and find the supercar/luxo cruiser/hot hatch of your dreams. So give that a try, then come back here and tell us all about your visionary EV design in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
Smart Corners, commercial trucks and electric supercars about CleanTech Talk to Daniel Barel
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