Self-driving cars are still in their very early infancy, and we’re still quite a few years away from actually being able to get into an automated vehicle take us to our destination. That wait isn’t going to be any easier if the Goodyear spherical tire design is something that will be waiting for us. A few days ago, Goodyear UK released a video showing their idea for a completely spherical tire design, meant as an idea for self-driving cars. These tires, Goodyear Eagle 360’s, would be held to the vehicle using magnetic levitation, meaning axles would be a thing on the past. Really, you’ll just want to watch the video to see what these things can do.
Pretty freaking cool, right? Now there are some obvious reasons why Goodyear is saying these tires would be specifically for self-driving cars. For one, all of the calculations, angles, and degrees of control these tires would allow are best suited for computerized control. We humans can (mostly) control vehicles pretty well in their current state. There are certainly video games that portray a similar vehicular control scheme, but there’s just really no way for a person to handle everything these theoretical tires could throw at them. Goodyear realizes this, which is why they very clearly label this concept as an idea for the future of self-driving vehicles.
Even so, this is a pretty freaking cool design. Self-driving cars can’t get here fast enough if these are the types of things we have to look forward to!
What do you think of the Goodyear Eagle 360 tires? Let us know in the comment section at the bottom of the article, or on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.
[button link=”http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a19747/goodyear-eagle-360-spherical-tires/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Popular Mechanics[/button]
