Your Future Car Will Never Have A Flat Tyre, Thanks To These Airless Wheels

Have you ever wondered how great it would be if your car tyres never got punctured? Well, Michelin and General Motors are bringing this dream to reality. The two giants are now partnering to manufacture an airless tyre that would be puncture-proof, sustainable, and maximize road safety while driving.

Their joint research program has built the prototype, UPTIS, which the association believes would hit the road by 2024. UPTIS, or Unique Puncture-proof Tyre System, will be an incredible milestone for the tyre industry, which has been trying for a long time to build tyres with zero punctures and utmost safety.

Airless Tyres: How Do They Work?

The UPTIS tyres will be well-suited for vehicles of all kinds – whether electric or hybrid. The tyre is made from composite rubber and resin-embedded fibreglass. The material and structural enhancements will help the tyres bear the weight of the car at normal road driving speeds. One of the best things about the tyre is that they will demand zero maintenance.

The biggest advantage of airless tyres is that they will eliminate punctures and bring blowouts to zero. Many times tyres face under or over inflation, due to which punctures and bursts may happen.  

Michelin has already been working upon this technology. UTIS is a production-ready prototype of the Tweel system that goes beyond the regular pneumatic technology for tyres. In 2014, an announcement of $50 million was made by the company for a plant to produce airless tyres. The Tweel tyres are currently being used in farm and construction equipment.

With airless tyres, there will never be a need to worry about flat tyres in off-road destinations. It will increase the driver and passenger safety while driving as no sudden punctures would take place while driving that generally destabilize the driving and lead to dangerous situations. On top of that, there’s no need to carry a spare tyre because airless tyres would never need any replacement. 

A simple sustainability benefit of airless tyres would be the reduction in the number of tyres manufactured. It would reduce the amount of rubber to be scrapped, ultimately decreasing the energy used in the production of tyres.