How Technology Helps Car Tires Get a (Better) Grip

From camera-based rearview mirrors to engines and transmissions that can adjust to the terrain ahead based on GPS and other information, many traditional car parts have gone high-tech. But tires haven't really changed much since the advent of the automobile. The last radical change to where the rubber meets road was when steel-belted radial tires were introduced near seventy years ago.

That's starting to change. Michelin recently introduced its Vision concept tire, a jumpsuit cycle-and-tire philharmonic that'south "airless, connected, rechargeable, customizable, and organic." The rechargeable function ways that the tread can be changed to adjust to various road conditions, climates, and driving styles. Merely the French tire giant mentioned at the unveiling of the concept in June that it could be at to the lowest degree x years or more earlier the applied science sees the light of day.

At the Frankfurt Auto Testify this week, Continental showed two tech-based tire concepts—ContiSense and ContiAdapt—that could alter the manner we ride on prophylactic. And while ContiAdapt is a flake further in the future—though not every bit far away as Michelin's Vision concept—ContiSense could be coming to a road well-nigh you before long.

Tires Get More Technically Advanced

ContiSense uses sensors embedded in specially developed, electrically conductive rubber to constantly measure tread depth and temperature and send the info to an in-car receiver. Of course, aggrandizement pressure level is already measured on all newer cars via the mandatory Tire Force per unit area Monitoring Organisation (TPMS). But a machine'southward TPMS only warns of reduced pressure, whereas ContiSense can immediately tell a driver when the tire has been punctured.

Continental plans to evolve ContiSense, which could be on the market in 5 years, so that it can besides send data about route surfaces, including temperature and the presence of snow or water, to the auto or a driver'southward smartphone via Bluetooth. That's where ContiAdapt comes in and tires get even more technically advanced.

The small patch of rubber that contacts the route and a car rides on has about as much impact on acceleration, braking, and cornering as some mechanical parts, and tin can profoundly touch on fuel economy. Tires also need to exist physically switched for safety'south sake in places where winter weather is a factor.

The holy grail for tires is if a unmarried circle of condom could exist adapted on the fly to conform to diverse driving styles and weather conditions and dynamically adapt for optimal fuel economy. ContiAdapt gets closer to this ideal by using micro-compressors integrated into a bike with a variable-width rim to alter the tire pressure accordingly.

This allows changing the size of a tire's contact patch to adjust unlike driving modes and road conditions. A smaller contact patch formed by increasing the tire pressure creates lower rolling resistance and thus more energy-efficient driving on roads that are smooth and dry. Only a larger contact patch caused past lowering tire pressure delivers better grip on glace roads, and the pressure could exist lowered even more to assistance a vehicle maneuver better, say, in deep snow or on icy roads—without having to get out of the car to let air out of the tires in the middle of a blizzard.

A demo in the Continental berth in Frankfurt allowed adjusting a tire for moisture, uneven, slippery, and normal road weather and also for meliorate fuel economy at the affect of a push. Nikolai Setzer, a member of Continental's executive lath and head of the company'southward tire division, noted that the sensor used in the ContiAdapt concept was introduced in 2022.

"With our automaker colleagues, we believe we have more features coming similar this using this type of sensors," he added. Setzer wouldn't give a timeframe on when the ContiAdapt concept may become available, but added that the visitor's "vision for the future" is a tire that automatically changes for the best driving condition.

"The more flexibility, the improve for consumers," he added. And the meliorate driving will be thanks to engineering science.

About Doug Newcomb

Doug Newcomb

Doug Newcomb is a recognized expert on the field of study of car engineering science inside the auto manufacture and among the automotive and general media, and a frequent speaker at automotive and consumer electronics industry events. Doug began his career in 1988 at the automobile stereo trade publication Mobile Electronics, before serving as editor of the leading consumer magazines covering the topic, Motorcar Audio and Electronics and Motorcar Stereo Review/Mobile Entertainment/Road & Runway Road Gear, from 1989 to 2005. In 2005 Doug started his own company, Newcomb Communications & Consulting, to provide content to such outlets as Road & Track, Popular Mechanics, MSN Autos, SEMA News, and many others. In 2008, he …