Front wheels visible from inside?

[kerbe2705]

This question keeps coming up in various forms – and forums: Everyone who’s been in the Gamma prototype has reported that they could see both front wheel pants. Remember, unless you have a vision problem or are wearing horse blinders, you have peripheral vision – you don’t just see what’s directly ahead of you. And the farther things are from your face, the wider your field-of-vision becomes. Plus, most peoples’ eyes move, allowing them to shift their focus without turning their heads.

In addition – the front wheel pants have light bars running along their tops…

IMHO this is not going to be such an issue as people fear it will be – the same with Aptera’s width.

[ROMAD]

For my 4′ x 8′ flat trailer, I added a cut-down bicycle flag rod to the rear corners. If I can’t see the wheel pants from the drivers seat I may do something similar. Perhaps a short curly-cue AM/FM car antenna to the pants.

[Shawgrin]

A dash camera mounted high on the window would help to see the hood and fenders. Since 1984 I have owned many vehicles that I could not see the hood or fenders from the driver’s seat. 1985 Toyota Corolla GTS was a great example, I could not see the front of the vehicle without the headlight popped up. Once I got familiar with the vehicles, they just became extensions of my self. I can not see my butt, but I know where and how far is sticks out :)…

[UnidentifiedDrivingObject]

One reason why I opted for the Off Road Kit. As described in the option upgrade page, it will have higher ground clearances of the wheel pants and tougher built vs stock. Granting the somewhat difficulty to see/judge where the right wheel pant is, from say street curb parking. Chances are, it will just scrape the exposed lower right tire wall.

[scott-ullerich]

In many of the cars I’ve owned in my life I wasn’t able to see the front of the hood, including my current model Y. You know what I did? I parked it a couple times and quickly got the hang of it, lol.

Total non issue.

[Markus]

Exactly you said, @scott-ullerich

@kerbe2705 , you stated that “Everyone who’s been in the Gamma prototype has reported that they could see both front wheel pants”. Well, then I am the first one you hear from who only could see the wheel pant on the driver’s side. I only could spot an tiny edge of the right hand side wheel pant when bowing over quite a bit towards the passenger seat, way more than I would dare to do while driving, not even while creeping forward. Most likely body size matters here – I am 1.70 m (5 ft 7″).

But then again, who would want to watch the right front tire of any car while driving.

[Gozer]

The driver side wheel pant can be seen, the passenger side wheel pant cannot be seen from the drivers side. However both wheels can be easily seen when the doors are open.

I think it will be a matter of getting used to driving an autocycle.

[ROMAD]

I guess it depends on WHAT part of the front wheel pants you want to see: frontmost, top, rearmost, and also how TALL you are.

[paul-schultz]

Obviously too late for the product launch but taking the idea from the snow blade on my John Deer Gator it has blade markers; short flexible poles. I always thought Aptera could have made a portion of the wheel pant amber lighting hinged so that it flipped up. A spring-loaded hinge and a simple release and you’d have a visible marker. It wouldn’t have to self-retract if cost/complexity were a concern. Since it would be used mainly for parking it could be manually pushed down when done. In its retracted form it would remain flush and not hinder aerodynamics. It wouldn’t be a straight marker pole like on my snow plow. When upright, it would be a bit curved given the shape of the current amber wheel pant lighting. But, it would be just enough to be visible from the driver’s seat. I know this is ‘out of the box’ thinking. And, I don’t think I’ll need it. But, it is an idea for those worried about crunching their wheel pants in tight maneuvering.

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 5 days ago by  Paul Schultz.

[Uncle-Dirt]

The wheel pants will have sensors

[gabriel-kemeny]

The parking sensors were moved to the nose cone on main body on Delta.

[rashid-clark]

I asked about passenger-side wheel visibility during a webinar. A moderator responded. Here’s my copy-paste of that:

QUESTION: Will the driver have a camera view of the right wheel’s position? (Not just while parking, but also while driving.)

“Kayleigh Venne @rashidclark You will be able to see the front view while driving through the display cameras so you can adjust easily in tight places.”

[Qiang]

Add a old-fashion radio antenna on the right wheel cover.😀