Anticipating an imminent future of self-driving cars and with the goal of "Sustainable Mobility", Michelin has teamed up with GM to produce a prototype airless tire.
Last week, The Michelin/GM duo announced that they had created a new tire that did not to be inflated. Called Uptis (which stands for Unique Punctureproof Tire System), the tires are made up of composite materials and use a unique design to bear the weight of the car at high speeds.
Uptis tires sport traditional tire treads, but have ditched the sidewalls, resulting in what looks like a skeletal form of a conventional tire. The tire uses high-strength composite spokes which are matted to the aluminum hub. In theory this will completely eliminate puncture blowouts and flat tires. Self-driving cars might be able to get you where you need to be, but they wouldn't be able to change their tires for you if something happens along the way.
This is actually only one pillar in Michelin's Four Pillar outline for innovation: airless, connected, 3-D printed and sustainably made from renewable or bio-sourced materials.
Eric Vinesse, executive vice president of research and development for the Michelin Group, detailed his company's long term goals at the Movin' On Summit last week..
"In terms of expectation, the sustainability aspect is absolutely critical for the next 10 years," Vinesse said. "We have an ambition in the next 30 years to be 80 percent renewable in everything we do. So materials and designs that are coming out of recycling or that is biosourced. So, developing all those biosourced options for the materials that we use is, of course, one of the big challenges and opportunities of the year."
In that case, Uptis falls in line with Michelin's move towards sustainability. Not only do they contain new sorts of composite materials such as resin-embedded fiberglass, but they also sport a more narrow design, requiring less raw material to make.
Furthermore, Michelin estimates that roughly 200 million tires are scrapped annually, mostly prematurely. An airless tire, like Uptis, which doesn't require constant air pressure maintenance and is immune to blowouts, is not only safer, but also more economically friendly.
Michelin claims that this new form of tire will have a much longer lifespan than conventional tires. The company is heralding consumer safety as one of the top priorities motivating their recent innovations. And as such, they have voiced their hope to outfit the Uptis onto cars in the Asian and Indian markets, where road conditions and safety are notoriously bad. China, for instance, most drivers tend to replace their tires every six months, compared to a 2-3 years in the US.
Uptis will begin undergoing extensive on road testing and observation later this year and is expected to be available for wholesale by 2024!
Now if the battery industry could see a similar upgrade in innovative technology, that would be great!