Patent ID: 7938218

Claim:
A children's ride-on vehicle, comprising: a body having a seat sized for a child; a plurality of wheels rotatably coupled to the body and adapted to contact a ground surface, wherein at least one of the plurality of wheels is a sensed wheel; a steering assembly comprising a steering mechanism adapted to receive steering inputs from a child sitting on the seat, and a steering linkage adapted to convey the steering inputs to at least one of the plurality of wheels; and a drive assembly adapted to selectively drive the rotation of at least one of the plurality of wheels in a plurality of drive configurations, wherein the plurality of drive configurations includes at least a high-speed drive configuration and a low-speed drive configuration, wherein the drive assembly comprises: a motor assembly comprising an electric motor; a user input device positioned to receive inputs from a child sitting on the seat and adapted to selectively actuate the motor assembly; a battery assembly including a battery adapted to selectively energize the motor assembly; and a ground detection system in communication with the sensed wheel and adapted to detect when the sensed wheel loses contact with the ground surface, wherein the drive assembly is adapted to restrict driving to the low-speed drive configuration when the ground detection system detects loss of contact of the sensed wheel with the ground surface.