Wheel.ee

About

In the Parodyne universe, Wheel.ee is an autonomous vehicle company which specialises in making autonomous top-fuel dragsters. The idea came about when its founder Willy “Wheelie” Wheeler dropped out of his Udacity nanodegree program to pursue his side project. Due to its profound simplicity, Wheel.ee’s tech is the only in the industry that is said to be “finished”. The autonomous stack works by simply applying maximum throttle to the base vehicle when it sees a green light. The system was briefly tested on public roads using Dodge Challengers, but their testing privileges were quickly revoked by the state of Kentucky due to irresponsible system design and safety drivers who were under the influence of alcohol and methamphetamine.

Wheel.ee is also the most profitable company in the AV space, making Wheeler the wealthiest white male in the American deep south. He is now aspiring to enter the Billionaire Space Race by building his own rocket to “stick it to that Elon Bezos mother fucker”.

Controversies

The company was at the center of a high-profile lawsuit when their cars were plagued with issues with the parachute system not deploying at the end of their quarter-mile runs. It was revealed in leaked documents that the company was using parachutes purchased at military surplus stores and packed by volunteers at a local school for special needs. Strangely enough the founder of Autonomistic, a competitor in the space, is an alum of the school. This lead to a short-lived theory that Autonomistic was deliberately sabotaging Wheel.ee, despite the two firms competing in entirely different sectors of the industry.

Wheeler has come under scrutiny from various press outlets for his past associations with the Research Flat Earth movement as well as several white supremicist organisations. Although he has never been charged with any crimes related to the matter, he has been questioned several times by the FBI in regards to January 6th 2021 riot on the US capitol building.

Wheeler was also prominently featured in an unaired episode of Tiger King. Although he was portrayed as being critical of Joe Exotic and his business, his affiliation is thought to have impacted Wheel.ee’s funding rounds.