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Has anyone ever tried to motorise the shopping trolley?
A shopping trolley.
The answer is an emphatic Yes! Humans have tried to motorise almost everything from staircases to little old ladies, from shaving razors to food blenders, and numerous vehicles that move things about in warehouses.
But I suspect you mean those push-along wheeled baskets designed to telescope together in supermarket trolley parks - the ones invented by a store owner in the US in 1937…in hopes of wooing more customers (who mostly were not weight lifters) to buy more goods. The result was so successful that now every supermarket in the world uses them.
And in some places, they are not only motorised (for obvious reasons with electric motors, not petrol or diesel engines) – some are computerised to help guide the shopper to a selected aisle and lead the way to check-out.
There are even autonomous computerised “follow-me” versions, and mobility-assistance scooters with a panier rack.
Industry uses electric pallet trucks and automated roll cages and order pickers, which are essentially motorised trolleys used in stock and delivery logistics.
And there are, of course, many hobbyists unable to resist the challenge of turning shopping trolleys into a motorsport, using anything from e-bike hub motors to motorcycle engines (perhaps in the interval between ride-on lawnmower grands prix).
So the “driving” forces range from porterage to mobility/accessibility, to convenience, and DIY fun…adding the challenges for stability, braking, and steering. Battery weight, assured control, and attachment methods are important. The results are numerous enough and fast enough to require traffic and safety laws in some places…and specific rules in supermarkets.
While on the subject, if you have ever wondered why some shopping trolleys are so difficult to steer, it is usually a problem with the “castor angle” of their wheels. They need to be set at a specific angle to hold a straight line and be obedient to turns. The same applies to cars.
