Goodyear create AERO Concept a ‘Future Tire’ for Autonomous, Flying Cars

The Goodyear AERO concept is a two-in-one tire designed for the autonomous, flying cars of the future.

This concept would work both as a tire for driving on the road and a “propeller” for flying through the sky.

The AERO is a multimodal tilt-rotor concept, serving as a drive train to transfer and absorb forces to and from the road in a traditional orientation and an aircraft propulsion system to provide lift in another orientation.

With capable vehicles, the AERO aims to give future commuters the freedom to move seamlessly from the road to the sky.

The concept’s spokes would provide support to carry the weight of the vehicle and act as fan blades to provide lift when the tire is tilted.

This unique airless tire uses a non-pneumatic structure that is flexible enough to dampen shocks when driving on the road, and strong enough to rotate at the high speeds necessary for the rotors to create vertical lift.

The concept would also feature an embedded Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) processor that would combine information from the tire’s sensors with data from vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.

The A.I. processor would analyse these streams of data to recommend a course of action - allowing a vehicle to adapt to a flying or driving mode and identify and resolve potential tire-related issues before they happen.

While the AERO is a purely conceptual design, some of its featured technologies, such as a non-pneumatic structure and intelligent tire capabilities, are being developed by Goodyear today, while others might become the basis for new ideas and potentially new products in the future.

Goodyear says its concepts are meant to trigger a debate on the tires and transport technologies for a new mobility ecosystem.

Chris Helsel, Chief Technology Officer at Goodyear: "With mobility companies looking to the sky for the answer to the challenges of urban transport and congestion, our work on advanced tire architectures and materials led us to imagine a wheel that could serve both as a traditional tire on the road and as a propulsion system in the sky."