Disney files patent for a transformable attraction ride vehicle

What if you entered a ride vehicle and during the time on the attraction, you get into a virtual crash and the vehicle changes, let’s say the headlights pop out, or the front crumbles, or the electrical system looks as if it is exposed.

At the end of the ride you get off and can see destruction, but as the ride vehicle goes into a tunnel and comes out of the other end to the loading area, the vehicle looks as it is brand new. Those boarding have no idea what’s ahead.

This is the basis of a new Disney patent, called Techniques For Concealed Vehicle Reset, first brought to our attention by the Walt Disney World Automated Permit Bot.

Some amusement park rides can implement special effects inside the show pod. Amusement park rides implement special effects inside a confined vehicle or show pod. The special effect need to be reset at the end of the ride. Some practical effects need to remain in place until after the passengers have exited the vehicle or pod, according to the patent application.

The vehicle also requires routine maintenance such as audio and projector calibration to may need to be tested. Because the calibration is typically not possible to do, practical effects are not used inside a passenger compartment and calibration happens less frequently, the application states.

For example, on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland, you enter the Millennium Falcon cockpit via an undamaged gangway. When you exit, the gangway is destroyed and pieces of the walls are destroyed with wires exposed. However, this is accomplished because you exit at a different location from where you entered. (Spoiler: The ride vehicle is on a turntable.)

But Disney is now looking at making a vehicle and track system where the vehicle would go out of sight from when guests disembark and be reset to preserve the surprise experienced during the ride.

In keeping with the Star Wars theme, imagine if you are in an escape pod, and during that time Stormtroopers shoot at you and the laser blasts hit the vehicle, causing it to spin and get damaged. When you disembark, you can see the damage, but when it goes to pick up the next crew, it looks good as new.

Let’s hope we see this being used soon for an upcoming attraction.