Bridgestone and Michelin test advances in puncture-free tyres

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The Bridgestone auto supplier tests progress in tires that never start, which is likely to smooth the path for more self -driving vehicles.

The Japanese company, which is suitable for Michelin in France to be the largest tire supplier in the world, has developed an empty version of air that it can support a 1 ton vehicle traveling 60 km per hour, and it is a great progress on solid tire potential a decade ago.

The new structures and materials that support the computer have led to large innovations to improve their performance at higher speeds and weights, making them competitors to replace air tires just as vehicles without driver are placed in addition to safety and no stop.

But the huge performance of the air tires and cost features makes it very difficult.

New tires are tried on shuttle buses and tourist vehicles, as Japan seeks to provide independent driving to rural communities to treat drivers and mechanics. Innovation is also seen as a potential discrimination amid the increasing Chinese and Indian competition.

“When we finally reach the independent driving, there will be a great value in avoiding vehicles that stop deeply in the mountains without a driver due to an explosion.”

Computer simulator operations have helped create tires with a modern coated structure in a rubber juice, where speakers can rise and bend at higher speeds and weights without becoming clouds on fuel consumption, smooth ride and safety compared to previous tires without air.

Tires may mean low maintenance costs and reduce the risk of responsibility from independent driving accidents caused by holes.

But experts fear that the design, with the cost of production several times of inflated frames, can struggle to obtain a position. BridgesTone also reduced the usual logic of innovation, as low -performance vehicles targeted the comprehensive market first, instead of testing products in high -performance races.

Michelin CEO, Florent Menigao, said that replacing all air tires with air is “Utopia will cost too much.” The company has worked on Airlose tires 20 years ago and has already placed its own version, called TWEEL, on smaller compounds like grass bodies in the United States.

“The transition from the strength of the grass to a car, to driving 50 km per hour, is other problems,” he said. Analysts said it includes a clear voice, the risk of stones that fly from a spokesperson and maintain performance at high speeds and weights over time.

Michelin has done experiments on its irresistible tires, on small vehicles on small trucks for DHL and La Poste delivery groups, but rubber wheels and aluminum are still in the initial model stage.

Micoin said Michelin “is not ready from an industrial point of view” for more, although logistics groups are “very happy.”

Bridgestone hopes to measure customer’s readiness to pay for air -free tires through demonstrations, such as a six -seat self -car in a mountainous area in the city of Higashoumi, where more than half of the population of 309 elderly elderly.

Otta said: “Frankly, we have not yet reached a clear vision of how much this work will happen and what is the market type.” “But we are not waiting to know that.”

The current current current is convincing. Their business model is threatened with the cheapest Chinese and Indian competition as tires have become a commodity, and they lose about 5 percent annually of their total size, according to tire industry research, a specialized consultant.

Instead, tire suppliers want to expand services. Customers will regularly return to re-equip the air-free tires-which is expected to last 10 to three to five for air tires.

“I don’t yet know whether they will work in terms of providing all technical requirements for life and economy in fuel consumption and the price that the world needs,” said David Show, CEO of Tire Research.

He added that success was more likely or not, because “air tires are pain.”