These are really cool, Geege. People really are reinventing the wheel!

For a long time, business experts said, "Don't try to reinvent the wheel." Now, that's the primary objective for many engineers looking to create the vehicles of the future. And just when it seems that there are no further improvements that could possibly be made to the most basic of mechanical parts, someone finds a way to tweak it just enough to open up a world of new possibilities. Imagine having tires capable of generating electricity to top off your electric car's battery and extend your driving range. There are also a few versions of omnidirectional wheels in development, which make it possible to drive in any direction and banish parallel parking headachesforever. And our list of inventions wouldn't be complete without at least one that seems totally insane, so try this on for size: cube-shaped wheelsthat perform better than round ones? You have to see it to believe it.