Roly Poly Cars

Roly polies, also called wood lice, potato bugs, sow bugs and pill bugs, would make the ideal form for cars of the future. When passing (overtaking), the faster car could simply roll over the slower car. The same thing would be done when meeting oncoming traffic. The cars traveling in a northerly direction would roll over southerly moving traffic. These maneuvers would be possible since each car’s front edge is higher than the back and side edges; a precise compass would raise the front edge even more when traveling northward. Even intersections could be navigated without stop signs, traffic lights or overpasses. Some sort of communication would be needed to decide who “takes the high road” when meeting on an exact east-west road or when meeting at 90 degrees, front-to-front in a crossing.

This would mean highways with only one lane, coping with many more cars that could be driven on either side of the road. Since there are 4000 species of the crustacean, roly poly car models could vary in shape and size, and their low air resistance would be fuel economic. Even parking would be eased since many isopod cars could fit under giant boulders.