Makers of airless tyres expect driverless cars to boost sales

Makers of airless tyres such as Japan’s Bridgestone Corporation hope driverless cars will herald a breakthrough for their niche technology, which is more than a decade old but underperforms standard tyres in every way except resistance to puncture.

Autonomous driving and the eventual introduction of self-driving taxis could mean greater demand for puncture-resistant tyres as greater usage of vehicles exposes them to more flat tyres.

“In the past, a car would be driven about 20% of the time and spend the other 80% in the garage,” Atsushi Ueshima of Bridgestone said at the biennial Tokyo Motor Show.

“In the age of shared, autonomous vehicles, it will be the opposite, and preventing breakdowns will be a top priority,” Ueshima said.

The auto show, which opened on October 24, will close on November 4.

France’s Michelin pioneered the technology, showcasing the first prototype in 2005 on a wheelchair. The commercial launch came in 2012, but uses have so far been mostly limited to ride-on lawnmowers and golf carts, along with construction machinery, where the chance of a puncture is high.

Toyota Group truckmaker Hino Motors used the motor show to display a vision of the future where electric, modular, people-to-parcel movers run on airless tyres of its own design. Toyota Motor Corporation showed a hydrogen-powered concept car fitted with Sumitomo Rubber Industries prototypes at the previous event in 2017.

Michelin and General Motors have announced a joint research agreement aiming to have airless tyres on passenger cars by as early as 2024. Testing starts this year on the Bolt electric vehicle in Michigan.

For electrified vehicles (EV) in particular, the tyres’ design - a band of rubber encircling polymer spokes around an aluminum hub - allows for motors to be fitted directly inside the wheel, opening up space in the chassis to extend leg room or expand the trunk.

EV manufacturers also hope that airless tyres will in the future weigh less than their standard cousins, allowing crucial extra kilometres of driving range given consumer concerns about running out of power far from the nearest charging station.

So far though, making them more lightweight has proved difficult. Sumitomo Rubber says it has been able to reduce weight slightly by changing the shape of the polymer spokes, but the heft of the rubber tread still makes it a little heavier than current conventional tyres.

Structurally, too, there are challenges. Sumitomo Rubber has been able to increase the size of its prototypes somewhat since the last motor show, but it is still far from making them big enough and strong enough for a bus or truck.

“There will definitely be demand for airless tyres for commercial vehicles in the future, but making something than can support that weight is a really huge obstacle,” Hiroshi Ohigashi, of Sumitomo Rubber, said at the motor show.

Manufacturing costs are also a little higher than for pneumatic tyres, but both Sumitomo Rubber and Bridgestone expect an eventual move to mass production would solve that.

In Japan, trucks are being designed for a driverless future with no cabin and interchangeable container areas that would allow vehicles to be highly customised for parcel delivery or even serve as mini-hotels or beauty salons.

At the Tokyo Motor Show this week, Hino Motors, the truckmaking arm of Toyota Motor, showcased the futuristic “Flatformer”, which had no driver’s cabin and where the low-riding bed is fixed but the cargo or container section can be swapped out. On display was a concept battery-electric model with a cargo hold divvied up into stacked storage boxes that would help parcel delivery companies to sort, load and deliver goods more efficiently.

“The idea is to produce a standardised truck bed upon which customers can customise according to the services they offer,” said Atsuyuki Hanazawa, manager of the design division at Hino’s future projects group.

Explosive growth in online shopping and increased demand for same-day deliveries have heaped pressure on courier companies and their drivers - particularly in Japan where the sector has borne the brunt of a worsening labour shortage.

In 2016, video footage of a courier in Japan kicking and tossing parcels in apparent frustration due to overwork went viral, sparking widespread public criticism.

Toyota’s minivehicle brand Daihatsu also showed off its “Tsumu Tsumu” model with a removeable cargo hold — one that can be adapted to suit the needs of farmers transporting vegetable harvests, or as a food truck, or for businesses that need to deliver food to restaurants.

Reuters