Patent ID: 7591335

Claim:
A children's ride-on vehicle, comprising: a body having at least one seat sized for a child; a plurality of wheels rotatably coupled to the body and adapted to contact a ground surface, wherein the plurality of wheels includes at least one steerable wheel and at least one driven wheel; a steering assembly comprising a steering mechanism adapted to receive steering inputs from a child sitting on the at least one seat, and a steering linkage adapted to convey the steering inputs to the at least one steerable wheel; and a drive assembly adapted to selectively drive the rotation of the at least one driven wheel in a plurality of drive configurations, wherein the drive assembly comprises: a motor assembly comprising at least one electric motor, at least one user input device positioned to receive inputs from a child sitting on the at least one seat and adapted to selectively actuate the motor assembly, a battery assembly including at least one battery adapted to selectively energize the motor assembly, and a ground detection system adapted to detect when at least one of the plurality of wheels loses contact with the ground surface, wherein the drive assembly is adapted to restrict driving of the at least one driven wheel to a subset of the plurality of drive configurations when the ground detection system detects loss of contact of the at least one of the plurality of wheels with the ground surface, and wherein the plurality of drive configurations includes at least one drive configuration that is not in the subset of the plurality of drive configurations; wherein the ground detection system includes at least one switch adapted to be selectively configured between a first position and a second position, and further wherein the ground detection system is adapted to selectively configure the switch between the first position and the second position responsive to whether the at least one of the plurality of wheels is in contact with the ground surface, or loses contact with the ground surface, respectively; wherein the steering assembly includes at least one spindle that rotatably couples the at least one of the plurality of wheels to the body; wherein the at least one spindle includes an end portion that rotatingly supports the at least one of the plurality of wheels, and wherein the at least one spindle is configured to move between a retracted position, in which the end portion is adjacent to the body, and an extended position, in which the end portion is spaced from the body relative to the retracted position; wherein the steering assembly includes at least one bias assembly adapted to urge the at least one spindle toward the extended position; and wherein the at least one spindle is operatively connected to the at least one switch such that the at least one switch is in the first position when the spindle is in the retracted position, and the at least one switch is in the second position when the spindle is in the extended position.