A real BB-8 droid would have a more sophisticated drive system, however. Back in 2012, Disney – which now owns Star Wars – was granted a patent for a ‘Magnetic spherical balancing robot drive’, which offers clues to how the BB-8 movie prop works. Regular vehicles have wheels that rotate on axle bearings so the vehicle turns in an arc (which is what makes parallel parking such a pain). Disney’s drive system, on the other hand, enables ‘holonomic motion’ – a vehicle is capable of moving in any direction.