The wheels of the future, as they are today

Large companies have one small fetish - they like to release futuristic videos. Say, see how we will drastically change the world through the next ... eleven years. As a result, Corning (manufacturer of Gorilla Glass) rolls everything into glass , then Microsoft hangs everything on the Metro interface . This is interesting in its own way, but it doesn’t touch much already. What a thing, when a manufacturer of utilitarian products such as car tires is taken for futuristic?



At the end of 2012, the South Korean manufacturer Hankook Tire rolled out an amazing video, where it showed a motion vector to the wheels of tomorrow. The basic idea is the adaptation of the wheel to a changing road surface. So sports tires can be divided into three sectors, increasing the area of ​​adhesion on bends, hollow wheels on electromagnets are able to withstand bumps, and a sector wheel for SUVs can effectively roll off-road.


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Already on this one could finish the topic. Although, shown in the video, it is a very distant and not very likely future (for example, I have strong doubts that the wheels on the electromagnets will be more comfortable and simpler than the current solution with shock absorbers).

But let's see what happens with the wheels now. Where are auto giants most likely to move in the near future? Last year, it became known that the company Resilient Technologies is working on waterless tires for military equipment. The profit is easy to understand: such tires are able to withstand bullet hits and remain operable when up to 30 percent of the internal cells are destroyed. For civilian benefits, too, is understandable - from now on you can forget about punctures, hernias and pressure testing. Of course, fans of “casting rinks” will be upset, but the benefits are more than obvious.



(I hesitated for a long time what to put in the topic - a photo on the background of the girl, or a video with running wheels in action. The girl won, so you can watch the video here ).

At the same time, do not think that these tires are engaged only in a little-known company. In varying degrees, many large manufacturers are working on this project. For example, Michlen is going to release a commercial version of his Michelin Tweel by 2015. While the first samples were presented back in 2007.

But this is only one side of the coin. It is clear that the road should be modified along with the wheels. In this respect, the Dutch project of “smart” roads, which is being launched already this year, looks very interesting (source English / Russian ). What is meant by the word "smart". First of all, it is a fluorescent marking that absorbs the energy of the sun during the day and shines all night. Secondly, and this is especially interesting: the appearance of special marks on asphalt, depending on weather conditions. Those. if the temperature drops below a certain point, snowflakes will appear on the asphalt, indicating places where there may be ice.



Thirdly, an adaptive lighting system is assumed, which includes only the sector where the car is traveling and thus saving electricity (plus wind turbines working from the air flow generated by the machines). And fourthly, a dedicated lane for electric vehicles with the possibility of induction charging realized in the future (this already looks fantastic).

So, summing up, we can say that in two or three years a small revolution in a very traditional industry may well await us.