By Muhammed Hashim 
Finland’s Nokian Tyres envisions adjustable-groove tires that adapt to road conditions for better traction and safety
- Most people don’t think much about tires, but they could soon become high-tech tools.
- Future smart tires could feature sensors and grooves that adapt to driving conditions.
- Nokian suggests these advanced tires could hit the market within a decade.
Nokian Tyres might not be as well known as Michelin or Pirelli, but the Finnish firm is envisioning a future where tires could automatically adapt to driving conditions. They’re billed as the next evolution of smart tires and could arrive by 2035.
As the company explained, there are already tires on the market that have integrated sensors which use a Bluetooth connection to share temperature and pressure information. While Nokian’s Vice President of Innovation and Development, Teemu Soini, admitted smart tires weren’t “mature” five years ago, he said today’s technology is now sufficiently durable and has a low enough power consumption that sensors can work throughout a tire’s life cycle.
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This dovetails into another area of development and that’s research into tires that can adapt to various driving conditions. In particular, these tires could change their groove capacity/design to improve traction, handling, and performance.
As an example, imagine driving on the highway to an off-road vehicle park and then getting there. Ideally, you’d have a tire design that maximizes fuel-efficiency, handling, and comfort while making the trip. Once you get to the park, the tire’s grooves could then change to optimize traction in dirt and mud.
That sounds like a farfetched fantasy, but Nokian said “This line of research could be reflected in consumer products as early as ten years from now.” However, it’s not entirely clear how these tires would work.
Regardless, Soini stated “adjusting capacity of the grooves would significantly improve the tire’s handling characteristics.” Soini went on to say that he believes Nokian Tyres will have a production tire that “can react to changes in driving conditions” by 2035.
While only time will tell what happens, Soini suggested the hype around airless tires might be overblown. As he explained, “There are still many technical challenges for tire manufacturers to solve before an airless tire is usable.” In particular, they have to be able to withstand high speeds and temperatures.
Soini believes this makes them unlikely to be used on passenger vehicles, at least in the short term. However, he thinks airless tires could make sense on slow-moving vehicles such as forklifts and excavators.
