Disney patent application details new off-road ride system
A new Disney patent application might provide clues about the new Cars ride coming to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.
In "Ride System Featuring a Free-Range Vehicle Platform," Disney proposes an attraction featuring "a track including uneven terrain, a plurality of ride vehicles positioned on the track, and a fleet controller."
In this ride system, the fleet controller would set a default position and speed for each of the ride vehicles. But each vehicle could include user controls that would allow users to adjust the vehicle's path and speed, within limits set by the fleet controller.
Think of an off-road version of Disneyland's Autopia, but with a computer providing remote control to keep you on the course rather than a guide rail holding you there.
And also unlike Autopia, this new system would support multiple potential ride paths for guests to choose, with differing terrain and show elements on each.
Cars ride path? Images from Disney's patent application
Cars ride elements?
"While traversing either the first path or the second path, the guests can adjust the speed, direction, and/or acceleration of the ride vehicle, such as to avoid obstacles (e.g., to steer around rocks, trees, etc.), engage obstacles (e.g., to ride over bumps or along berms), navigate the terrain, or otherwise provide a desired experience," the patent application said. "In this manner, the guests can control (at least to some degree) their experience on the attraction."
The fleet controller would enforce track boundaries as well as vehicle boundaries to prevent collisions. It also would adjust vehicles' speed to ensure a consistent flow of vehicles through the attraction.
Walt Disney World is building a new Cars-themed "Piston Peak National Park" area on the site of the old Rivers of America in the Magic Kingdom. One of the two rides in development for this area will be an off-road rally racing ride that Disney introduced at 2024's D23 event in Anaheim. Today's patent application tracks (pun very much intended) with the features of that ride.
Concept art courtesy Disney
Disney has not announced names nor an opening date for its Magic Kingdom Cars attractions.
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This does look very interesting given the features expected on the Piston Peak attraction, but the timing of this doesn't make sense for a ride that is almost certainly through the prototyping phase and is likely close to 60-75% percent complete in it's final on-site planning - dozens of trucks carrying fill dirt have been spotted bringing their loads to the former RoA site to provide final grading for the attraction and land. You don't typically see Disney patenting something less than a year or 2 it applies said patent to a major attraction - they're typically applying for those patents 5+ years ahead of time as part of the prototyping process if they're using novel ride systems.
I'm not necessarily saying that this is NOT for MK's Piston Peak, but as discussed for the previous patent for a sidecar technology also tipped for potential use at Piston Peak, the timing of this application doesn't really fit for an attraction that is probably through most of the design phase.