I am counting the days for these to become publicly available. A popped tire ruins my whole week. In most cases I have had to get the car re aligned, so the cost is not just getting a replacement tire.
Yeah not to mention if its happening in the middle of urgent things. Once i just opt to park my car in public parking and get taxy just because of tight deadline. Replaced it later
Maybe FIA should make airless tyres mandatory in F1 & endurance racing, I'm sure the engineers in those racing categories would figure something out. :)
Look at all these hapless morons commenting above me. Guys, Relax! He's just sharing an idea. Who knows? Maybe someday that might become a reality. Don't just dismiss his opinions and then proceed to insult him. So, please... train and educate yourselves on proper decorum when it comes to interacting with people...even on the internet, yes? 🤔
Just having these for off-roading would be AMAZING! When you're at 13k ft in the Rockies with no level ground to jack up the Jeep and no cell service, let me tell you a flat is a nightmare situation.
If these airless tires don’t last at least as long as pneumatic tires (60k miles) when they come out, I ain’t buying. If that means I have to wait till 2030, that’s fine by me.
@@remix4098 especially since modern tires will last 100k miles with minimal issues. The rubber they’re using can take the heat, speed, debris and wear and run off of lower air pressures. They’re absurd. Michelins makes tweels and they are awesome on lawn mowers because the skeletonized design acts as suspension as well as airless system but they are ungodly expensive and need tons of work to be even considered over tires today
Sounds like a long time coming. With all the blowouts, flats, hydroplaning and on and on. My whole concern is pliability and sheer strength. Technology available today could very well come up with design and materials engineering that can be a game changer. Otherwise these new fangled tire designs may fall ‘flat’, pardon the pun on their face. Tensile and torsion strength mixed with pliability for high speed cornering. Centrifugal and centripetal forces can be a huge factor for secure seating if the tire bead on the rim edge. It will all vary when translating in to cost for extra heavy vehicles like semi tractor trailers too.
They are big company, they know what they doing, unlike us guessing "what if...", 2030 is not long, cant wait the next future of tire, especially for EV
Car sits outside in cold weather. It snows 2 feet. Snow gets in the tire and freezes. Melts, freezes. When you go to drive the ice breaks the tire or you have a really bad wobble. I want to like these tires because you never have to worry about a flat in the middle of nowhere.
The airless tires are phenomenal! But think about it . Imagine airless tires on every car every vehicle. Tire company’s would all go out of business. What is taking so long is that there still trying to produce an airless tire that will deteriorate, break, expire, run flat til no grip or til it’s integrity will last less not last a lifetime! Once they figure that out then tire company’s can stay in business auto shops won’t lose money an nothing will change prices will continue to go up! Once airless tires are ready for sale there will be a lot of disappointing customers!
If the tire manufacturers can make an ultra long lasting tire, even if it costs a lot more, I think they'd find a market for it in fleets. Roadside service calls and lost productivity for big trucks, tractor trailers, city buses, and delivery trucks aren't cheap. Show an organization with 1,000 fleet vehicles that the cost per tire mile will be the same with the high-tech tires but that their maintenance and service calls (not to mention lost vehicle/driver productivity) to replace/repair tires will be much less, and the companies will bite. If they don't, get your lobbyists to play the environmental argument and convince laws to be passed mandating longer lasting, "more environmentally friendly" tires. If the concern is that long lasting tires will cost too much upfront or won't live up to the longevity claims, the tire manufacturers could lease the tires to fleet users on a $/1k miles/tire or $/month/tire basis, thus basically guaranteeing vehicle owners a set tire cost per month or per mile. That's done with some expensive aircraft components, and even with things like contracts for copier maintenance and supplies at big offices (companies pay X per page printed).
I OWNED a 1978 Pontiac Parisian that CAME STOCK with Uniroyal airless tires. After two days I returned to the dealership with THREE BENT steel rims! I demanded some "real tires and a set of NEW RIMS". I got them when I tossed the keys and title to the owner of the place. By the next year GM recalled this stupid idea.
What is a rock gets stuck in the shear band? Will it damage the rim and then get catapulted outside, possibly killing someone or inflicting more damage?
I can't see the industry really promoting a tire that does not need replacing if punctured. I've had punctures too close to the outside wall requiring a complete replacement which would not be required if the tires were airless. Still think we need these even if for environmental reasons.
Well rotations are still useless in the fact the front end will endure more load than the back, especially for drivers in constant stop and go traffic.
Only benefit I can think of is that you cannot puncture airless tire. Beyond that, there's only downsides. These tire are heavy to start with, which mean less efficient suspension, more fuel consumption etc. For special purposes only (like moon rover), no need to re-invent the wheel so to speak. Especially when (as of 2024) air does not cost anything.
What about snow, ice, and mud getting into the web of that tire? It won't be able to compress properly and will through the car severely out of balance. Also when I'm towing a trailer with my pick-up truck I can raise air pressure with the load and lower it for better ride when trailer is off. This tire doesn't give you that option and if it needs a special wheel on top of that it sounds very expensive and not worth it to me. Not saying it doesn't have a use case but seems limited.
I was concerned about that too but I saw a video of one of these tires full of mud and as the car drove it crushed all of the mud and dirt and it ejected. I saw a video that did the same with ice.
I've seen a demo where a bike tire was made out of a nitinol mesh (nitinol retains its shape under stress and can "remember" the shape it was forged into) that was encased in a small rubber sleeve, it was able to run over nails because the nitinol kept the structure instead of air pressure, so you could probably do something similar
Replacing air with polymer material is going to add a lot of rotating mass, and increase air resistance as that sprung connecting layer is basically a fan. They will be far less efficient than existing tyre and likely much more expensive - as the construction is likely much more complicated. Don’t really see many advantages other than puncture avoidance.
A tire that never goes flat is a huge factor. Farm trucks, tractors, construction vehicles, lawn mowers, etc. These tweels are the future in vehicles operating 55mph and below.
If airless tires worked, every airliner would have them...A 727 "Pig's" main gear tires cost about $230,000 EACH and are good for MAYBE 400 landings. The Duryea Bros. started putting pneumatic tires on cars in 1897. There were THOUSANDS of reasons. In a year EVERY car sold in the WORLD had pneumatic tires.
Michelin wants to sell all their air tires first before they put that on the market they have to sell all of their inventory to profit before they release this. If they try before they will have people with new airless tires and they will sell their current tires. However the new tires could be defective which could be smart for Michelin if other companies can’t compete. Because they would have people buying new air tires after selling their old ones. however this will not be the case because they can and they can’t afford error which is why there still being tested.
can you imagine all the rocks , mud, debris that will wreak havoc on your car. this would work on slow moving equipment , definitely not on anything going faster 20 mph
@Roger Vieira tires changes in shape as it treads over rocks and different terrains etc. So a cover would not work. This idea is really for vehicles used for construction where speed is not a factor
Uh huh, heres my thoughts. I live in Montana, mud , snow, ice are the norm. Will these tides shed mud, ice, snow from the inner open spokes , or will the tire be off balance. 2nd if they won't last 45-60 thousand miles, forget it not worth the hassle.. I own a Jeep Wrangler, Ford Diesel F-250 and a 4door Optima. if you can't haul heavy weight , per say my diesel or off road as with my Jeep or drive distance as per the sedan, don't bother I'll stick with the tried and proven pneumatic tires..
yes but in those applications, the vehicles move at relatively low speeds, therefore the airless tires won't heat up. won't work for a daily driver, at least not yet. also, I quite like the ability to control how much air is in my tire to increase the contact patch and traction.
It was at least 7 years ago I used a skid steer with these tires at work. They work amazing. They ride really smooth... Much smoother than a standard tire. But they didn't last long. The tread would delaminate off much sooner than a standard tire would wear out. Once they fix that issue, they'll be great, for skid steers at least. They'll be far too expensive for cars, in my opinion.
So what I heard was a lot of BS excuses masking the real reason which is that corporations now a days are getting lazy and don't want to take any risks to not upset the shareholders.
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