Goodyear’s innovative vision for sustainable mobility inspires the industry.

Goodyear is offering great tires to drivers around the world for over 120 years. However, what drives the company’s operations and sets it apart in the market is its commitment to sustainable future mobility. Goodyear’s innovative look at the role of intelligent tires in modern transport ecosystems inspires the industry and sets new trends.

Goodyear’s commitment to sustainable mobility is multi-dimensional. The company regularly presents concept tires designed to meet the challenges of the future of the automotive industry, in cooperation with leading car manufacturers such as Toyota, Lexus and Tesla.

Futuristic tire concepts for the vehicles of the future were regularly presented at the Geneva International Motor Show. It was there that Goodyear amazed the world with his bold ideas every year. One of them was the Goodyear Eagle-360 spherical tire, intended for future autonomous vehicles, presented in 2016. Its unique, spherical shape stimulated the imagination. Thanks to active technology, the tire can move in a way to minimize the risk of skidding in the event of hazards such as black ice or sudden obstacles.

In 2018, Goodyear unveiled a concept called “Oxygene” – a vision of a tire using live moss! This future-proof solution can help develop cleaner, more convenient, safer and more sustainable connections in smart cities. Goodyear Oxygene is distinguished by its unique structure – it includes the aforementioned living moss growing on the sidewall. The open structure and intelligent tread design allow moisture and water to be absorbed and circulated from the road surface, which triggers photosynthesis and the release of oxygen into the atmosphere.

A year later, the world saw another surprising vision – Goodyear AERO, a two-in-one tire designed for the autonomous flying cars of the future. The conceptual product would work both as a driving tire and a propeller for flying. In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic forced the organizers of the Geneva Salon to cancel the event, but Goodyear continued – this time virtually – to present its vision. This time it was the Goodyear reCharge concept – a revolutionary, self-regenerating concept tire that changes and adapts to individual needs thanks to renewing capsules.

Importantly, in each of the above concepts, Goodyear refer to a “intelligent tire” – a tire full of high-tech sensors that send data to the cloud, which allows to analyze road conditions in real time. Artificial intelligence also plays an important role in such tire. The task of the built-in artificial intelligence processor will be to combine information from sensors placed in the tires with data obtained from communication between vehicles and between vehicles and e.g. smart city infrastructure. The AI processor would then analyze the data streams to recommend specific actions for the vehicle.

Another aspect of Goodyear’s sustainable approach is supporting projects in the area of ​​new technologies, start-ups and other innovative solutions in which Goodyear can share its knowledge and experience. That’s why, in 2020, Goodyear announced the creation of the Goodyear Ventures fund, which will allocate $ 100 million over the next 10 years to new investments in sustainable mobility solutions and startups.

Author:

Paweł Jezierski – Group Communications Manager, Goodyear Europe East – North