Autonov 1 is the name given to the automobile novelty that was created sometime in the 1970s, by making a once regular motor vehicle engine able to run in both the forward and backward directions, utilizing all four pre-existing gears in whichever direction. A second steering wheel was introduced at the back, with a central revolving chair to effect the driver's switch-over position.

Purpose of design

Its inventor, the late engineering professor

Ayodele Awojobi Ayodele Oluwatumininu Awojobi (12 March 1937 – 23 September 1984), also known by the nicknames "Dead Easy", "The Akoka Giant", and "Macbeth", was a Nigerian academic, author, inventor, social crusader and activist. He was considered a scholarl ...

, imagined the advantage of the invention in such a situation as when a motor vehicle drives forward into a

cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac (, from French for 'bag-bottom'), no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one inlet or outlet. The term "dead end" is understood in all varieties of English, but the official terminology ...

and needs to make a fast, backward retreat.

Emergency evacuation Emergency evacuation is the urgent immediate egress or escape of people away from an area that contains an imminent threat, an ongoing threat or a hazard to lives or property. Examples range from the small-scale evacuation of a building due t ...

procedures or war-time situations exemplify this.

Patent and specification

A patent for the invention was never obtained before the inventor's untimely death. An abandoned ''Layland'' jeep was utilized for the invention and it is to this day, displayed at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos during the said faculty's "Engineering week". It basically consists of a jeep, with a second steering wheel built-in at the rear end that connects the axle. A gear-shift is also built here that connects, through a built-in mechanism, to the already pre-existing four gears, such that the hybrid vehicle can be driven on all four gears, in both forward and backward directions. The jeep's central compartment was re-designed to have a rotating floor mechanism that can swivel an occupant from the rear seat, to the front one and vice versa. Short of dismantling it piece-meal, the detailed knowledge of the designed mechanism is unknown as no drawings or design sketches are known to exist.

References

{{Reflist Automobile transmissions Cars of Nigeria Nigerian inventions