“Hyundai Mobis Unveils e-Corner Technology Allowing 90 Degree Turns for Impressive Parking Maneuvers”

The published video shows how the Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric car stops in front of a free space between parked cars, turns all four wheels perpendicular to the curb and simply enters the parking space sideways. No reversing and no steering. Hyundai calls this method “driving crab”. Such opportunities are provided by an autonomous electric drive of each wheel, the so-called “motor-wheel” or a wheel with a hub motor.

Most electric vehicles have an engine mounted on one or both axles, but the motors can also be inside the wheels, as on an electric scooter or bicycle. On electric vehicles, this option is rare due to additional design and manufacturing complexities and a significant increase in unsprung masses, which negatively affects handling and comfort. But, as Hyundai Mobis demonstrates, such a system allows you to perform some outlandish maneuvers that are impossible to perform in a conventional car.

Hyundai also demonstrated a “zero turn”, that is, a U-turn on the spot without a U-turn. The Ioniq 5 turns the wheels outward, but this time the front and rear wheels turn in opposite directions, causing the car to spin in place around an axis mentally drawn through the center of the roof.

Later in the video, another version of the turn is shown, but now around the right front wheel as an axis of rotation. Curiously, this concept isn’t new – automakers have been experimenting with gadgets that could slide the back of a car into a parking space since at least the 1930s.

The technology also allows you to move diagonally, turning all four wheels 45 degrees. This trick can also be performed by the GMC Hummer EV pickup. But of all the technologies shown in the clip, parallel parking and 180-degree pirouette seem to be the most useful in the real world. Unfortunately, Hyundai hasn’t said if the e-Corner will ever hit the market or if it’s just going to be an outlandish prototype.