Have you noticed that keeping your steering wheel straight while driving forward will see that your car will go straight, but if you do that in reverse you’ll constantly have to adjust the steering angle because the vehicle will tend to go left or right?
That’s probably one of the reasons some people fail to park correctly, but thanks to the guys over at MinutePhysics you’ll get an explanation for this backwards driving wizardry.
The jiggly steering has nothing to do with the fact you’re struggling to see behind, twisting you head around, looking into the mirrors and losing your concentration, but with physics alone.
You see, an automobile that’s going in reverse becomes much more sensible to steering input, because the front wheels now become rear wheels and have to guide the whole car towards some place instead of just “pointing” the direction and the rest just having to follow.
It’s like when you’re trying to balance a pen or a shovel in your palm. It sounds strange, but have you noticed forklifts steer with their rear wheels? That’s because they need to take sharp turns everyday and also have precision to stick the fork under pallets. Of course, their steering ratio is different and doesn’t seem that odd.
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