Autoshow: Airless tyre makers hope for breakout moment with autonomous driving
25/10/2019 12:07
By Kevin Buckland
TOKYO, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Makers of airless tyres such as
Japan's Bridgestone Corp. hope driverless cars will herald a
breakthrough for their niche technology, which is more than a
decade old but underperforms standard tyres in every way except
resistance to puncture.
Autonomous driving - and the eventual introduction of
self-driving taxis - could mean greater demand for
puncture-resistant tyres as greater usage of vehicles exposes
them to more flat tyres.
"In the past, a car would be driven about 20% of the time
and spend the other 80% in the garage," Atsushi Ueshima of
Bridgestone 5108.T said at the biennial Tokyo Motor Show on
Thursday.
"In the age of shared, autonomous vehicles, it will be the
opposite, and preventing breakdowns will be a top priority."
France's Michelin MICP.PA pioneered the technology,
showcasing the first prototype in 2005 on a wheelchair. The
commercial launch came in 2012, but uses have so far been mostly
limited to ride-on lawnmowers and golf carts, along with
construction machinery, where the chance of a puncture is high.
Toyota Group truckmaker Hino Motors Ltd 7205.T used the
motor show to display a vision of the future where electric,
modular, people-to-parcel movers run on airless tyres of its own
design. L3N2792Q4 Toyota Motor Corp 7203.T showed a
hydrogen-powered concept car fitted with Sumitomo Rubber
Industries 5110.T prototypes at the previous event in 2017.
Michelin and General Motors Co GM.N have announced a joint
research agreement aiming to have airless tyres on passenger
cars by as early as 2024. Testing starts this year on the Bolt
electric vehicle in Michigan.
For electrified vehicles (EV) in particular, the tyres'
design - a band of rubber encircling polymer spokes around an
aluminum hub - allows for motors to be fitted directly inside
the wheel, opening up space in the chassis to extend leg room or
expand the trunk.
EV manufacturers also hope that airless tyres will in the
future weigh less than their standard cousins, allowing crucial
extra kilometres of driving range given consumer concerns about
running out of power far from the nearest charging station.
So far though, making them more lightweight has proved
difficult. Sumitomo Rubber says it has been able to reduce
weight slightly by changing the shape of the polymer spokes, but
the heft of the rubber tread still makes it a little heavier
than current conventional tyres.
Structurally, too, there are challenges. Sumitomo Rubber has
been able to increase the size of its prototypes somewhat since
the last motor show, but it is still far from making them big
enough and strong enough for a bus or truck.
"There will definitely be demand for airless tyres for
commercial vehicles in the future, but making something than can
support that weight is a really huge obstacle," Hiroshi
Ohigashi, of Sumitomo Rubber, said at the motor show.
Manufacturing costs are also a little higher than for
pneumatic tyres, but both Sumitomo Rubber and Bridgestone expect
an eventual move to mass production would solve that.
(Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by David Dolan and Deepa
Babington)
((Kevin.Buckland@thomsonreuters.com;))