This has been touched on a few times, but I wanted to write out my thoughts. The wheels are not visible (I don't think) to a car on the side of the Aptera. Also, people have an idea in their head of what a car looks like, and they assume that the width of the side is the width of the whole car, so if they glance quickly at a car, they unconsciously estimate how much room they have next to it based on the side. Here are some scenarios: 1) A car pulls up in a parking space next to the Aptera. The driver does not see the wheels (because they are turning into the space around parked cars). The driver hits the wheel. 2) The Aptera is on the road and a driver in the next lane over assumes that they have a certain amount of space on the side. But they have less because of the wheels. So the driver drifts over and catches the wheel, causing an accident. 3) Owners of the Aptera are used to using the side of their car as a guide for parallel parking. They won't know how much room to leave for the wheel, and it's difficult to practice without scraping the wheel. I'm also wondering how autonomous driving software would "box" the car - would it box around the wheels? But that's another discussion....
