This has been touched on a few times, but I wanted to write out my thoughts.
The wheels are not visible (I don't think) to a car on the side of the Aptera. Also, people have an idea in their head of what a car looks like, and they assume that the width of the side is the width of the whole car, so if they glance quickly at a car, they unconsciously estimate how much room they have next to it based on the side. Here are some scenarios:
1) A car pulls up in a parking space next to the Aptera. The driver does not see the wheels (because they are turning into the space around parked cars). The driver hits the wheel.
2) The Aptera is on the road and a driver in the next lane over assumes that they have a certain amount of space on the side. But they have less because of the wheels. So the driver drifts over and catches the wheel, causing an accident.
3) Owners of the Aptera are used to using the side of their car as a guide for parallel parking. They won't know how much room to leave for the wheel, and it's difficult to practice without scraping the wheel.
I'm also wondering how autonomous driving software would "box" the car - would it box around the wheels? But that's another discussion....
I remember the late 50s and early 60s when mainstream cars from GM, Ford and Chrysler were routinely 80 inches wide, not including side mirrors: The FUD surrounding Aptera's front width it just that - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
I regularly need to park my 85" wide Honda Clarity between HUGE superking pick-ups, Suburbans and Escalades in narrow downtown nose-in parking spots and have yet to touch any of them. If someone pulls into a parking space next to me they don't aim for the side of my car, they aim for the lines on the pavement: Do drivers regularly swing into the space occupying another vehicle to park in their own space? Why would anyone pull so far into an Aptera's parking space as to hit its front wheel?
If a driver drifts into another lane in traffic, it's not because they assume they have the room to do it - it's because they're not in control of their vehicle. They are no more or less likely to hit an Aptera's front wheel in this scenario than they are to hit the side of an 18-wheeler: If they're not in control and they swerve into the adjoining lane either the drivers in that lane will try to avoid them or there will be collisions.
Since the advent of rear-view cameras most drivers avail themselves of that tool when reversing into a parking space - parallel or otherwise - or pull forward into the spot assuming that the rear of the vehicle will follow its front. The "targeting lines" shown on-screen when reversing have made me much more confident and accurate at parallel parking.