Thursday video: spherical tyres to keep autonomous cars rolling

This week’s video comes from the future where autonomous vehicles could be fitted with 3D printed spherical tyres that connect to the body of a car via magnetic levitation.

That is the future as imagined by Goodyear, a company that has been making tyres for 117 years and one that used this year’s Geneva Motor Show to show off the Eagle-360 concept.

For the concept, the tread of an Eagle-360 tyre would mimic the pattern of brain coral, and embedded sensors would register the road conditions and communicate this information to the car and other vehicles.

“Though this is purely a concept tyre, it showcases some of Goodyear’s best innovative thinking and how the needs of future drivers can be addressed,” said Jean-Claude Kihn, president of Goodyear EMEA. “Based on our own recent research, we know that young drivers are looking for smart and sustainable cars to be part of future mobility and that reliability and safety are key for them.”