Tire Society panel: A future of evolution and revolution in the tire industry

The 39th annual Tire Society Conference on Tire Science and Technology concluded Oct. 2 with some intelligent talk on intelligent transportation.

Throughout the week, attendees of the week-long virtual event took deep dives with academic speakers and industry experts into the world of autonomous and electric vehicles, the infrastructure that will be required and the tire's role in this "evolutionary and revolutionary" change.

"With these evolving vehicle platforms, we are at a tipping point—where we're on an evolving journey and coming to a revolutionary change," Queen said.

Moderating an esteemed panel of aerospace, mechanical and design engineers was a senior vehicle dynamicist from General Motors, Mohammad Behroozi.

Behroozi was joined in the discussion by Ric Mousseau of General Motors, lead engineer in tire modeling at GM; Giorgio Rizzoni, director of the Center of Automotive Research at Ohio State University as well as the Ford Motor Co. chair of ElectroMechanical Systems; Chris Queen, director of innovation technology at Goodyear and head of the Beyond Tire Technology projects there; and Ross Tessien of Electricwaze L.L.C., a mechanical engineer with 43 U.S. patents.

"This is going to be the future for us," Behroozi said. "And as a Tire Society we need to act according to what is going to happen in the future. How is transportation going to look in 10 years?"

Tunnel vision

Tessie noted that inner city transportation and rural transportation will look very different in the coming years. Rural residents will have far less of a need to use a provider like Uber or Lyft for transportation and far more of need to own their own vehicle.

Conversely, a smaller percentage of ownership is predicted for urban areas, "where people will evolve away from ownership to renting," he said.

And it is within urban areas, under main thoroughfares and interstate highway hubs, that Tessie sees an entirely new infrastructure evolving—thousands of miles of tunnels. Tessie currently is working on a high-speed tunnel project with The Boring Co., a spinoff of Elon Musk's SpaceX.

"What is going to be the new normal?" he asked. "Things are going to be completely different than they are today. I don't know how long it will take for fully autonomous vehicles, five years is my guess. That will change transportation as we know it."

Tessie envisions driverless vehicles whipping through the tunnel system at between 120mph and 150mph.

"Traffic jams and stop-and-goes will disappear," he said. "Tunnel transportation will begin in earnest in five to 10 years, and within a decade transportation infrastructure will be completely different than it is today."

Of course, infrastructure is expensive, especially if the goal is to replace 44,000 miles of U.S. highways with underground, high-speed equivalents.

"It is interesting in regard to infrastructure," said Rizzoni, who offered the plenary lecture on the NextCar project Sept. 29. "We are imagining a future with a substantial amount of infrastructure investment, especially with tunnels. The expense would be on the magnitude of the first freeway system."

Rizzoni said the same could be said for electrification. The market penetration for EVs overall currently sits at 2.5 percent, Rizzoni said, and in California that number is closer to 10 percent.

"If these numbers become significant, the role of electric infrastructure will have to adapt," he said.

Either way, a Goodyear engineer is never one to back down from a tire making challenge.

"Tunnels pose a challenge for tire makers—these are high speed, high load and high temperature environments, all exciting challenges for tire engineers," Queen said. "AVs also pose challenges—as they will likely be EV, as well.

"Ross' vision is exciting. That covers on the ground and below—but the potential is all this can take to the skies as well. All these are mediums to be explored and there will be tires in all three roles."

AVs, EVs and the tire
The innovative compounding and engineering that will be required from tire makers in the future will be pushed by sustainability, tire intelligence and tire performance, the panelists said. The tires will need to be self-healing, have sensors for fuel economy, treadwear and grip, and the ability to transfer this information to the autonomous automobile.

"You no longer have a driver interacting directly with the vehicle and this affects the requirements of tires," Mousseau said. "They may not have to be as aggressively designed. That offers opportunities.

"Tire design is a trade off, a trade off of one performance to another. AVs could reduce cornering performance and then trade up on stopping distance or grip."

Mousseau said it is crucial to know where a vehicle is driving.

"Ride is important, and tire noise is more prominent in an EV, as there is no engine noise," he said. "In addition, we have to be concerned about torque management as EVs generate much more torque. How do we prevent the wheels from spinning? A number of things need to be rebalanced."

Queen said tire makers will need to be flexible in their offerings and innovative in their approaches, perhaps like never before.

"When we think of the future, we have to consider the changes in use cases," he said "A mass shift toward fleet operations is a big change for the vehicle and entire companies. A fleet operation's tire is way different than a tire for mass market consumers."

The same goes for the EV platform, all vehicles that are likely to be heavier than their internal combustion engine counterparts.

"Adaptability is interesting," Queen said. "If you can morph a tire from city to tunnel-ready, that would provide a nice balance."

The lack of a driver provides an even more interesting dynamic with the literal absence of the human touch.

"We are all taught to pay attention to the road's feel through pedals, the seat, the steering wheel," he said. "How do we provide that sensibility back into vehicle itself?"

The answer, in part, may be industry cooperation across field once considered off limits, such research and development. But if the industry can curb its competitive spirit enough to eschew the small victories and realize that the game changers are for everyone, their is reason to be optimistic.

"In the last 50 years, the role of government regulations is to make sure that products developed by the transportation industry are environmentally friendly, energy efficient and safe," Rizzoni said. "The efforts to establish a standard to allow cross-collaboration between companies is fundamental.

"It should be born out of a necessary spirit of cooperation and confidence. We should be thinking about how to interact with one another."