Micro cars designed to get great gas milage have the downside of having very bad survivability in a crash with a standard size vehicle, not having any crumple zones to absorb the impact. A little scooter size car colliding with a big rig would end up being scraped off the bumper. With this design however even such a mismatch might be survivable in a collision.
The car is designed to slide under the other full sized vehicle, picture a limpet with wheels, strengthened to become a ramp rather than a battering ram. The re-enforcement needed to prevent a car from being crushed as another car rolls over it, while substantial, is nothing near what you'd need to absorb the impact of a head to head collision.
This takes the disadvantage of the car being very small and turns it into an advantage. Make it as low to the ground as possible and use masts with flags or other means to make it visible to taller vehicles, something already done with recumbent bikes.
This design approach would be better for the large car in the collision as well. While it's not great hitting a 3 foot ramp head on at sixty miles per hour and getting tossed into the air of flipping over, it's a heck of a lot better than having 2,000 pounds (about the weight of a Smart Car) plowing into your passenger compartment at a combined speed of 120 miles per hour.-- doctorremulac3, May 23 2014 Somewhat the exact opposite Bumperless_20Ramping_20Vehicles [FlyingToaster, May 23 2014] found a mini- wedge car http://alternative-...ond_bug_ca_1970.jpg [xandram, May 23 2014] Limpet-mobile v0.1 http://imgur.com/CDLMjCJPrototype mock up [the porpoise, May 23 2014] A larger version http://upload.wikim...9/Leonardo_tank.JPGJust use the top half [TomP, May 24 2014] What if two of these cars collide?-- hippo, May 23 2014 Wouldn't it be a bit easier all'round to have the smaller vehicle do the flying-in-the-air bit ?-- FlyingToaster, May 23 2014 They need pre-emptive air bag crumple zones. Ones that deploy outside of the car just before the impact occurs.
Put one underneath the car, and it can bounce up in the air, flying over the other vehicle.-- MechE, May 23 2014 So would this car look like a wedge? Or possibly a double edged wedge for both directions?-- xandram, May 23 2014 I'm picturing a limpet.-- doctorremulac3, May 23 2014 //What if two of these cars collide?//
Lowest one wins.
//Wouldn't it be a bit easier all'round to have the smaller vehicle do the flying-in-the-air bit ?//
//Put one (airbag) underneath the car, and it can bounce up in the air, flying over the other vehicle.//
I considered ejection seats then pictured a horrible fatal crash taking on the black comedy tinge of a Monty Python sketch. Besides, you'd probably only get launched up to the windshield of the oncoming car with the time you'd have to eject. Plus, even if you shot free, you're landing on a freeway.
To make up for the wimpy look of the vehicle, it would be called "The Rampage". As in, "Announcing the 2016 Chevy Rampage!"
Marketing gold. In fact, dump the rest of this idea, "The Rampage" is the most awesome name for a car ever. Lends itself to a huge off road vehicle.-- doctorremulac3, May 23 2014 The roof reinforcement would probably outweigh any benefits of having a small car.
It would be easier to simply ban all cars bigger than yours.
Alternatively, ban all cars smaller than yours.
Alternatively, ban all car crashes.-- mitxela, May 23 2014 This would work...until larger vehicles start installing spinning arms designed to hook under your little limpet-mobile and flip it.-- the porpoise, May 23 2014 That's not a problem if you fit a srimech.-- mitxela, May 23 2014 Prototype mock up image [link]. Seems possible.-- the porpoise, May 23 2014 Wow, did you make that? That's very cool!-- doctorremulac3, May 23 2014 //I'm picturing a limpet
Ahh, now you're just being shellfish...-- not_morrison_rm, May 24 2014 The surest way to ensure that you survive a micro car crash is to make sure you're not in it at the time.-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 25 2014 random, halfbakery