Your tire will be connected to your car by more than just a set of wheels and lug nuts. Michelin has developed a system called Michelin Track Connect, which allows your car and tire to talk to each other while out on the race track. Besides standard performance metrics like g forces and lap times, you’ll also stay in the know regarding just how much longer you can push your tires to their limits. This is just the start of what’s in store for the future of tire technology though, as cars are evolving fairly quickly right now and the rubber needs to keep up.
We’re quite a ways away from true autonomous vehicles prowling our roads and freeways, but it’s something that is no longer beyond the horizon. We can see it. There’s still work to be done both on the tech itself and the very infrastructure all around us, but roadmaps to autonomous vehicles are in place. The tires that will support these vehicles are also being developed.
What needs to change?
How will their demands differ from those of human-piloted cars and trucks? What does the future hold for tire technology? It’s an interesting bit of automotive nerdery. Pick an important part of any vehicle and then begin to wonder how it will evolve in 10, 20, and 30 years time. Stretch things out to 50 years, and the conversation can change even more.
So how do you think the tire will evolve? If we can clean up our infrastructure (which seems a mighty big IF at the moment), then the tires could perhaps be made of different compounds to provide smoother rides. Potholes would be less of a concern, but weather would still have to play in role in tire development. That’s customer-location dependent, of course, but something that won’t go away no matter how cars change.
How will tires evolve to meet the demands of future vehicles?
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