During last week’s Geneva International Motor Show, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company unveiled two concept tires that could alter the way we drive.
The first, dubbed “BHO3,” applies to electric vehicles: The concept wheel would charge the car’s battery as it rides along the highway. By generating electricity through the heat produced by a rotating tire, BHO3 also optimizes the tire’s rolling resistance.
“This technology has potential to significantly contribute to the solution of future mobility challenges,” Goodyear said in a press release. “This visionary tire technology could eliminate the vehicle-range anxiety motorists may have with electric cars.”
For the majority of drivers still traveling via gasoline-powered automobiles, Goodyear is also working on the Triple Tube—a combination of three tubes that adjust tire inflation pressure in response to changing road conditions.
Reliant on an internal pump that moves air from the main air chamber to the three individual tubes, the tire automatically adjusts to three different positions: eoc/safety, sporty, or wet traction.
The first uses maximum inflation in all three hoses, offering reduced rolling resistance; wet traction also requires max swelling to provide high aquaplaning resistance through a raised tread on the tire. Running on reduced inflation, the sport position gives drivers dry handling through an optimized contact patch.
“These concept tires reimagine the role that tires may play in the future,” Goodyear CTO Joe Zekoski said in a statement. “We envision a future in which our products become more integrated with the vehicle and the consumer, more environmentally friendly and more versatile.”
Don’t expect to be rotating these tires any time soon, though. Goodyear acknowledges that these are future concepts, which represent the company’s innovation strategy and market-back mindset.
