Engineers at Ohio State University want to change the way cars work. They want to build a car without the engine.

A prototype was developed by Junmin Wang. The car has no engine, no transmission and no differential. each wheel has its own battery powered motor, and the car's computer brain employs a number of algorithms to sync up the wheels and to ensure the car drives smoothly and handles well. The car is about half the weight of a normal car.

The car is smart enough to tell each wheel to exert just how much force it needs to for a smooth ride.  "One wheel can be doing the braking, while another is doing the driving," Wang explains. "The computer gets signals from the driver from the steering wheel and pedal positions, then calculates the desired speed, or vehicle motion, based on a mathematical model." A car that runs on math? Not a bad idea. Eventually, he says, it will "handle better than typical conventional cars."

Would cars with no engines be the norm in the future? What do you think? [OSU]