New Tire Technology Requires Zero Air Pressure… No More Flat Tires?

We’ve seen glimpses of what’s being called “airless tire technology” in the past, from some detailed animations and concepts to a few pre-production pieces that seem to offer some real promise of eliminating the pesky flat tire. Of course, this is a monumentally huge undertaking considering that the “twheel” – that a mashup of tire and wheel, if you haven’t seen that term before – has to shoulder the burden of carrying the full weight of a vehicle and be able to stand up to the rigors of driving tens of thousands of miles without failing.

This video offers a little insight into what we may be looking at as the future of tire technology. While it’s certainly not pretty, the pothole test does well to prove what kind of abuse the twheel can take. Of course, we know this is a low speed test and that if they are going to actually replace the traditional air-filled tire, they need to be able to offer plenty of durability to the customer at highway speeds, something that isn’t tested in this video. What is tested definitely shows promise though, and we have to admit the things look pretty cool, although the metal center is hardly the best looking design, we see plenty of potential for customization and can’t wait to see what the aftermarket comes up with for these things if they do make it to into the production phase.

We’d had the discussion in the past about things getting trapped inside each of the little compartments between each support band running from the center out to the tread. In the first half of the video, you can see all it takes is a little wheel speed to sling all the mud and muck out of the vacant spaces.

So tell us guys, do you think twheels will take over the market, or will they be perceived as more of a gimmick or specialty product?

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