Hmm…why not 4 unicycles?
Interesting. On a very small car (with light-ish wheels) it might actually be slightly practical.
But there are some fishy things about this story. The little car shown in the video is a little Nissan. I remember seeing them in Japan when we went there for Unicon (2004). Then, one of the supposed patent drawings on this page looks like the one in the video, but the other one looks suspiciously like the cool electric one-wheeler built by that guy in Oregon, with the frame that moves side to side.
Downsides:
- While it works for the single commuter, the idea doesn't work if there are two or more of you.
- A car wheel is a pretty heavy thing to drive around on, and will eat up your battery supply much faster than a purpose-built unicycle was; say, one that fits easily into the trunk.
- And if you had one in the trunk, it could weigh half as much, and therefore go farther.
- And it would take up less space, so there would be room for two (or more) of them in the trunk.
- One of the most complex parts of the "detatchable unicycle" idea would be the quick release mechanism, and necessary structural parts needed to make it support the car while being driven.
That Nissan would be the Micra… John makes it sound like a bonkers foreign car, but they’re dead popular over here 
I guess it’s the creepy face.
Here’s a link to the actual patent:
The idea does seem far fetched, but I wonder why Ford would invest the thousands of dollars into applying for something like this. Is there a hidden technology being protected here? If so is it at all relevant to unicycles? Probably not, but interesting anyway.
I think it’s cute – that’s why I took the picture. I love little tiny cars (used to have a Honda N600, if that means anything to anyone).
I’m guessing (without reading through the patent) that it’s related to the mechanism of how the wheel attaches and detatches. This potentially could have multiple other uses that Ford might want to protect.
Cute idea, but I think its a joke to actually make it work…think about it, how in the heck is it actually going to attach itself to a car’s axle???
And really…unicyling itself is niche, not to mention a huge ass wide Q factor, road gunked and grimed up motorized looks- good -only- in- a-cartoon unicycle. And, with a one final “and,”
…when one crashes, one is left stranded with a crapped out wheel, and a crappier looking defunked missing / hyjacked wheel car.