Goodyear unveiled a new concept tyre at the Geneva International Motor Show this year. The concept is called Eagle 360 Urban and is enabled with artificial intelligence. The tyre can judge the road surface and change treads according to what suits best for a safer, more comfortable ride. The brand had developed a concept called Eagle 360 last year for meeting demands of autonomous driving. Goodyear took the concept and further developed it to create the Eagle 360 Urban. The brand says the tyre can ‘sense, decide, transform and interact’. The tyre has been given a bionic skin and morphing treads. Goodyear hopes this concept would rapidly adapt to the changing environment and also support Mobility as a Service (MaaS) for fleets and their users.
The bionic skin’s high-sensory capacity tread, with a sensor network, captures information on road and weather conditions and transmits the data to optimise the tread and improve braking, handling and efficiency. It also uploads the information on the Internet to inform other tyres poised to take the same route.
By combining information, the Eagle 360 Urban decides the most appropriate course of action. Artificial Intelligence helps the tyre to learns from its previous actions to optimise future course of action.
Made of super-elastic polymer, the tyre’s bionic skin has a flexibility similar to that of human skin, allowing it to expand and contract. This outer layer covers a foam-like material that is strong enough to remain flexible despite the weight of a vehicle. Thanks to this flexibility, actuator elements beneath the tyre’s surface, which are components that change shape with an electrical input, working like human muscles, can re-shape the individual sections of the tyre’s tread design, adding ‘dimples’ for wet conditions or smoothing the tread for dry conditions. A new tread with a safer contact patch is thus deployed.
Using this morphing tread, the Eagle 360 Urban transforms and adapts to changing road and weather conditions. The concept tyre can then interact to share the information it has captured, the related action and its success with other vehicles and all of the elements making up the Internet of Things.
When the tyre’s bionic skin is damaged, the sensors in the tread can locate the puncture. The tyre then rotates to create a different contact patch. This reduces pressure on the puncture and allows the self-healing process to start. The self-healing works thanks to materials which are specifically designed to be able to flow towards the puncture. They react physically and chemically with each other to form new molecular bonds, closing the puncture.
