Technology is evolving faster than ever and that goes double for the technology in cars. Just a few decades ago, the idea of cars coming equipped with AI that can talk to the driver or being able to drive themselves was the stuff of science fiction. But that fiction is quickly becoming reality. With all the excitement about what cars can do, we often forget the most important part of a car, the tires.

Whether it’s EVs or traditional combustion engines, every car needs wheels and tires to operate. Enthusiasts will tell you new and high-quality tires are the first and most impactful upgrade you can make to any car. Luckily, technology is making some serious tire advancements too. Some of these concepts will be on the market in the next few years, some will take longer. All of these are a significant step-up from the boring and old-fashioned tires we’re using today.

RELATED: 10 Things You Should Know Before Buying New Tires

10 Connected Tires for Better Grip

Via: BMW Blog

Car manufacturers have been investing heavily in 4x4 and AWD systems so cars can have better grip, but the sensors that let a car know when it’s lost grip don’t tell the whole story. The next big thing in grip might be sensors in tires. Sensors in tires are nothing new. Almost all new cars now have some kind of sensor to check tire pressure but companies are looking to equip more advanced sensors in tires to improve grip like Goodyear. Goodyear revealed the IntelliGrip concept back in 2016 to complement self-driving technology. With drivers being entirely disconnected from driving, a car would need a way to know if there was something wrong with the tires.

IntelliGrip tires would have a series of advanced sensors and special treads to sense road conditions to provide a better grip during hard weather conditions like snow and rain. But, Goodyear also made clear that the technology would also improve stopping distance, cornering response, and increased stability at all speeds. Far from a wild concept, some in the industry say the idea is inevitable.

9 Pothole-proof Tires

Via: Autoevolution

Anyone who lives in an area with terrible roads has probably either experienced a blown tire/damaged wheel or knows someone who has from a pothole or some other road hazard. The tire innovation company, Maxion Wheels, wants to make blowouts from potholes a thing of the past with their project Unbreakable: Acorus tires.

At a glance, the tire looks completely normal but they are actually made of several layers with additional rubber layers and a collapsible sidewall. The sudden pressure of a pothole would normally compress a tire’s sidewall until it pinches and punctures the tire also damaging the rim of the wheel in the process forcing an owner to replace the entire thing. This is especially true for low profile sidewalls in performance tires. Acorus also reduces road noise and can be fitted to almost any existing passenger tire.

8 Environmentally-Friendly Tires

Via: Tyrepress

Everyone knows tires are made of rubber. But what everyone might not know is the environmental impact of rubber. Manufacturing rubber causes a lot of air pollution, rubber in landfills are a fire hazard, and the plastics in rubber can leach into the environment like water and soil contaminating everything from plants to the food we eat.

Continental, one of the biggest tire manufacturers, is working on environmentally-friendly tires that would drastically reduce waste and pollution. Taraxagum is a tire made of a special latex found in the roots of Russian dandelions. There are many benefits to using dandelions compared to rubber. It takes about seven years to grow a rubber tree and it can only grow in certain environments. Russian dandelions only need a year to grow and being a weed they can grow almost anywhere. Ultimately, Taraxagum tires will be cheaper, more environmentally-friendly, and less susceptible to global shortages.

RELATED: 15 Cars With The Widest Tires From The Factory

7 Self-Healing Tires

Via: Auto Trader

Blown tires account for a large portion of tires that end up in the landfill. It happens to all of us whether it’s a loose nail on the road or just a terrible road and more often than not, a puncture cannot be patched if the tire shop is far away. Some tire manufacturers try to get around the problem with self-sealing tires. There is a thin layer of viscous liquid inside a tire that can fill any small puncture and seal it. The technology is limited, however. The technology can only handle a small puncture similar to a nail and may not handle high speeds or long distances.

Self-healing tires would be much more reliable. Current tires are made through vulcanization, manufacturers use heat and sulfur on crisscrossed rubber inside the tire to provide strength and flexibility. But once the tire is punctured it’s impossible to get that original strength back. Scientists have found a way to replace sulfur in the vulcanization process with imidazolium bromide. The new bromobutyl rubber can heal itself after a puncture without the aid of sealants and can be used as if it were new.

6 Puncture-Proof Tires

Via: Michelin

Self-sealing and healing tires are great but what if there were a solution that renders punctures and flat tires obsolete? The best solution on the market right now are run flat tires. These tires either have reinforced sidewalls that can take the weight of the vehicle or have an inner support ring that prevents the rim of the wheel from hitting the ground. Multiple manufacturers are working on tires that don’t depend on air pressure to keep a tire’s shape.

Michelin is currently testing their Uptis (unique puncture-proof tire system). The tire has poly-resin spokes inside of the tires instead of air. Aside from being flat tire proof, it will also last far longer than traditional tires because the treads can be thicker and they will always be at the perfect “PSI.” An additional benefit is that Uptis is 3D printed which results in far less pollution.

Other manufacturers like Kumho have a similar idea with their e-NIMF which takes the airless puncture-proof design but is also made of entirely renewable materials. Experts say the technology can be on the market as soon as 2024.

5 Regrowing Tires

Via: Motor Authority

Preventing punctures is one thing but Goodyear is developing a tire that doesn’t ever have to be changed out. While punctures and blowouts are a large percentage of tires that end up in the landfill, the biggest reason is simply that the treads on a tire wear out. Once that happens tires become dangerous to drive on and need to be replaced. Goodyear’s ReCharge tire concept imagines a future where lightweight tire frames would “grow” tread using a replaceable capsule filled with a special liquid compound.

The compound could be specially tuned to the driver and their needs. There could be a summer capsule that would grow cold weather tire treads or a high-performance track capsule. The tires would be AI-assisted to know what kind of tread and compound the tire would need and grow the right kind of tread accordingly. Goodyear has not indicated any kind of timeline for when we’ll see the technology on the roads but the idea is compatible with other advancements they already have in development.

RELATED: Nitrogen Vs. Air In Tires: 10 Differences

4 Transforming Tires

via TechSpot

So far, while technically impressive, none of these futuristic tires have changed the fundamental nature of wheels. DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) which is essentially the R&D arm of the US military has created a fundamentally different kind of wheel. They created a wheel that can transform from a traditional wheel shape into a triangular caterpillar tract in about a second.

The technology has been developed for next-generation tanks and assault vehicles but like many things the military makes can trickle down into the civilian market, i.e. GPS. Traditionally, the benefit of having a circular wheel is the speed that can be attained but caterpillar tract style wheels have much more traction due to more surface area touching the ground. Now, assault vehicles won’t have to choose between speed or off-roading traction. This is especially important as many conflict areas are riddled with poorly maintained roads.

3 Energy Generating Tires

Via: Daily Mail

Goodyear’s energy-generating tire concept was first unveiled in 2015 but has renewed interest in 2020. The concept of generating energy from a car’s movement isn’t new. Every new EV has some form of regenerative braking to recapture energy from the brakes but Goodyear’s tires codenamed BH-03 will generate energy through heat.

Tires naturally build up a lot of heat while driving. Normally, that’s good it provides better traction but it’s a lot of lost energy as well. BH-03 has a thermo-piezoelectric layer under the rubber which can convert heat into electricity. Heat is caused by friction when rubber rubs against the road but can also be produced when a black tire sits in a sun meaning energy can be harvested even while the car is parked. This technology will be especially important in EVs where every watt of power is critical.

2 Goodyear Eagle 360

Via: Carbodydesign

So far, all the tires on this list while highly advanced haven’t exactly reinvented the wheel. Goodyear’s Eagle 360 concept is arguably the most ambitious concept on this list. Instead of cylindrical wheels, Goodyear wants to use spherical wheels. Originally announced in 2016, the idea has been floating around for much longer than that. The first time such an idea was brought to the mainstream was in the 2004 film I, Robot starring Will Smith. The movie features an iconic futuristic Audi with spherical wheels.

Realistically, the idea is difficult to execute as there is no way to connect the wheels to the rest of the car. Goodyear got around the problem with magnets. Powerful magnets would allow the car to float on top of the wheels and rotate them. The benefits of such technology include greater mobility, rendering parallel parking obsolete, and self-rotation to extend the life of tire treads and calculate the best traction. Additionally, spherical tires would increase reliability by eliminating the need for axles, control arms, or even mechanical brakes.

1 Goodyear NASA Memory Alloy Tire

Via: NASA

The most far-out idea is also already developed. Goodyear in partnership with NASA created Memory Alloy wheels. NASA famously landed a pair of rover exploration vehicles on Mars in 2004. When developing the vehicles, the wheels were a unique problem. Current rovers use lightweight aluminum which is great for saving weight on the shuttle getting to Mars but is a poor long-term solution.

Memory Alloy tires are made of Nitinol, nickel-titanium alloy, manufactured into chainmail in the shape of a wheel. The structure makes it very strong and lightweight. What makes the material special is the fact that it can form around the terrain better than metals or rubber can but can reform back to the original shape at the right temperature. This use case provides long term durability without giving up performance. NASA is planning on using the technology for future rovers and Goodyear may implement the technology in extreme off-roading situations.

NEXT: 5 Most Dependable Winter Tires (& 5 Worst)