Technology: One Set Of Tires Per Car
How is this for technological disruption? What is incredible is making your own industry obsolete.
At least, if successful, you are the one to control the entire market. This means putting competitors out of business.
The tire industry might not be the most exciting but it is highly lucrative. We all expect to buy tiers as they wear thin and age. What if, however, we never had to do that? Also, what if there were no holes to repair from nails or other road debris?
Sound like something out of Sci-Fi? It will be a reality starting in 2024.
Michelin Looking To Nearly Eliminate Tires
We are on the verge of airless tires. This is going to completely revolutionize the transportation industry. It will also reduce waste as well as other environmental concerns.
The idea is to create a tire that cannot be punctured or will not suffer from premature life failure. This is something common as tired wear thing from improper tire pressure or balancing.
Michelin is now going to bring out a tire line, Uptis, seeks to be the Holy Grail of tires. The company has struck a deal with General Motors to start putting them on vehicles in 2024.
An article in New Atlas described the benefits:
The advantages are pretty clear: firstly, you can never be brought to a stop by a puncture or blowout – Michelin says about 200 million tires every year hit scrapyards early thanks to these. Secondly, you don't have to look after your tire pressures; that doesn't just save you time, it also eliminates all early wear caused by underinflation.
That is a very telling that 200 million tires end up in the landfill prematurely. It is a situation that will be alleviated by the implementation of Uptis. There is even a chance that the tires can be retread when they wear thin.
Total Disruption
It is easy to see how, if this is proven successful, the entire tire industry is completely destroyed. Not only are all other manufacturers in jeopardy of having their market share completely erased but also all those service centers that sell tires.
Of course, this is how technological disruption usually works. Rarely does it only affect the most obvious companies.
It is also advantageous for the consumer. Consider how much people spend over their lives on tires. We typical spend at least a few hundred for a full set. If we do that a couple times on each vehicle we own, that adds up over time.
We also can consider how much municipalities and private companies spend. Consider all the tires that trucking companies and police departments go through. It is also the same for cabs as well as delivery firms.
All of this ends up being applied to the cost of things. While it might not be a major expense in other products, it does add up. Also, when we think of the total cost of ownership of a personal vehicle, tires might not be the biggest expense. Nevertheless, when we are hit with that bill, it is never fun.
Since Michelin is the one who is jumping ahead of all else, they could end up being one of the few who remains. Even if others can create the technology around the patents, this will likely shrink the industry a great deal. With each new vehicle produced, a set of tires is needed. That amounts to around 80 million vehicles a year as it stands now. However, if autonomous taxis start to become mainstream, that number could drop.
That means we might only see the need for one or two companies in the field.
If the timeline is correct, and the tires start to see production in 2024, we could see them becoming the standard by 2030. In this situation, we could see Michelin start to offer them to many vehicles out there. This would provide them with the opportunity to tap into the existing vehicle fleet, which is estimated to be around 2 billion globally.
This will give them a nice market for a number of years before the count started to dwindle. Certainly, the company would be making itself obsolete, at least with this segment of the business, yet it would be capturing revenues (and presume profits) while that happens.
The resources could then be used to fund other endeavors to keep the business viable on an ongoing basis.
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I've been thinking about this too. Why in 2021 do we still need to air up or replace tires?
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It isnt an easy concept to solve. Air is needed for traction on the road. Without it, we would slide all over the place. It seems Michelin finally solved this problem.
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I think about the moon rover with the chain metal tires that are airless and can go over literally any surface. No worry of flat tires, wear and tear, or having to replace them.
Very interesting read. Certainly a sustainable view towards something with so much pollution in the world. They will take a long time to get every car out there, especially if the initial cost of these tyres is more expensive than standard ones. It might be a luxury product to begin before supply costs make it affordable for everyone.
It is going to be a slow process especially since it is not slated to start until 2024. And then who knows what the production will look like.
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I shouldn't have to tell you how excited this got me.
I'm gonna look into this as soon as I finish this.
I saw something similar on a military vehicle in a prototype video some years ago and occasionally wonder if anything ever came of it. Here's my answer.
I presume there still is some amount of rubber used for the tread, correct? In the pic above it looks to be made of all metal, but closer inspection makes it a little clearer there's a thin, one or so inch layer of a different material, but is it rubber or something new? Seems like if it was just rubber and metal we'd have implemented it long ago..., unless it's the metal that's new... a new alloy maybe?
Anyway, I'll check it out. Thanks for such an exciting post! This is the kind of practical application stuff I can smash into the Analoguers face when they start that it worked for my daddy bullshit.
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I got so excited. I didn’t need long at all to find this…
I’m curious how this can hold up to a proper curb check or serious pot hole, but my questions above are answered.
“Airless, connected, 3-D printable, and 100% sustainable”. That’s a hell of a bold position to take for a f**king tire company.
It’ll likely take another decade or two to perfect it, or for the masses to adapt to the drawbacks, if any, but this is the kind of revolutionary thinking that’s leading us to outgrow our current sub-par Method of operation.
This was a great find. 👍
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The reason it was on those type of vehicles is because they had issues with the technology at higher speeds.
It appears they now solved that.
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I wish I could remember how long it’s been since I saw that. Feels like a decade or so, but none the less that’s not a lot of time for such a major advancement to unfold, all things considered.
Very exciting times we’re in. I !LUV it.
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I am very much looking forward to this becoming more mainstream. At least the right to repair has been kind of bad and companies have been making their devices harder to fix.
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fantastic innovation, lets go Michelin!
I think more importantly there is no cost to get rid of them as that is the biggest headache. There are some use cases for them but that is only a small percentage. Would definitely love to see this happen.
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Yes hard to know what it all will result in without details but the general idea is making progress.
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Well, we should see the price of it. If it is expensive, then traditional tires will continue to be demanded.
The cost is not known at this time but if it is less expensive than the lifetime cost of tire repair, then it will be in demand.
Plus we know that a lot of price is due to scaling of production. So will likely start out more expensive then go down as things ramp up.
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When I started reading that, I thought: Hey, they'll have nanobots working around the clock making sure each tire is in perfect condition. But I guess this is still sci-fi. :) We'll settle with Michelin's new super-tires then.