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....
Excellent points my concerns as well. There are LED lights over the top of the skirts but maybe too low for SUVs to notice whether they are coming from the side of your car or wheel skirts.
There will definitely be white knuckle events.
@loswa Regarding the center image: Perhaps for a one-eyed driver whose neck and torso cannot turn or bend and who has no peripheral vision...
As you all well note
It will be different and...
We will have to adjust and be vigilant
Maybe you should go on similar designed vehicle blogs like Polaris and:
https://vanderhallusa.com/
And ask your questions, to ease your anxiety (?). Hear tips/solutions
I my mind🤔
✅There will be public events coming..
I can’t rarely drive a night or have planned drives in bad weather ( I told you I was old)
✅ ai have no issues with oarking away from others in a parking area and getting the exercise to walk to my visiting location
✅There is a return policy.
Fact: This is a niche vehicle and there will be a future Aptera platform of vehicles.
At my ”ripe age” I always wanted to try a motorcycle but was hesitant because of safety, and my wife’s shaking finger for the same reason.
Maybe all good calls.... as I am still around. While some friends are handicapped from motorcycle accidents and one killed. However....
NOW the anticipated safety on the Aptera can make a new dream come true.
Safety tests forthcoming and testing to a conducted to car standards
No pushback from my wife
🤞
I may not use valet parking..: as the attendants would lack the Aptera experience!
Simply stopping making it too wide to even sell in Europe would make a pretty big difference.
Also, with the minimum available range 625% of the avg. daily US drive, a small range loss from Aptera's original "hot-rod look" fenders would allow damage-free curb strikes, & also much less damage when hit by another car in a parking lot (but still risk catastrophe in moving collisions). Tires/wheels/suspension are all VERY strong components, compared to an SUV fender.
Also, these "bumper guides" would help, especially in neon color with bright (flashing?) LEDs at the top, adding very little drag to either style of Aptera fender:
No fundamental design changes, only a 24 cm narrower track width, would do the job and more led strips in the wheel covers - that's it
I'm more concerned about the Aptera's legality in Europe and UK, being a wide three-wheeler.
Stephen Copestake
That's why I repeat daily my Mantra "Aptera Ma Ni Pad Me Hum" - Aptera hear us and make the Aptera 2 m/79 in wide.
I'm a very defensive driver and park far away when I can. Yet, scenarios #1 and #2 both happened to me in my s2000. These scenarios are a growing concern with the increased popularity of SUVs. Hopefully, other vehicles' collision warning systems can help protect Aptera drivers.
I remember the late 50s and early 60s when mainstream cars from GM, Ford and Chrysler were routinely 80 inches wide, not including side mirrors: The FUD surrounding Aptera's front width it just that - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
I regularly need to park my 85" wide Honda Clarity between HUGE superking pick-ups, Suburbans and Escalades in narrow downtown nose-in parking spots and have yet to touch any of them. If someone pulls into a parking space next to me they don't aim for the side of my car, they aim for the lines on the pavement: Do drivers regularly swing into the space occupying another vehicle to park in their own space? Why would anyone pull so far into an Aptera's parking space as to hit its front wheel?
If a driver drifts into another lane in traffic, it's not because they assume they have the room to do it - it's because they're not in control of their vehicle. They are no more or less likely to hit an Aptera's front wheel in this scenario than they are to hit the side of an 18-wheeler: If they're not in control and they swerve into the adjoining lane either the drivers in that lane will try to avoid them or there will be collisions.
Since the advent of rear-view cameras most drivers avail themselves of that tool when reversing into a parking space - parallel or otherwise - or pull forward into the spot assuming that the rear of the vehicle will follow its front. The "targeting lines" shown on-screen when reversing have made me much more confident and accurate at parallel parking.
Honda Clarity is 73.9" wide https://owners.honda.com/vehicles/information/2020/Clarity%20Plug-In%20Hybrid/specs#mid^ZC5F1LEW
@Daniel Watkins Most websites post only the body width, not the width with mirrors: The HUGE side-view mirrors extend a full 6" beyond the widest part of the Clarity on either side - I "rounded-down" to 85". The widest car I ever drove was my parents' 1972 Oldsmobile Delta 88 - which was about an inch wider than the Clarity.