Goodyear’s new tyre concept to make flying cars a reality

Sci-fi fans know flying cars should be here by now but the latest tech brings the reality closer.

Goodyear aero tyre concept acts as a propeller.

For Goodyear the sky’s the limit.

The company known for its floating billboard, the Goodyear blimp, has revealed a tyre that can make your car fly.

The Goodyear Aero concept unveiled at the Geneva motor show works as both a regular road-going tyre and as a propeller for a flying car.

Packing technology straight out of the movie Tron, the tyres swivel to give uplift and directional propulsion in similar fashion to helicopter rotors.

Goodyear aero tyre concept is designed to drive on the road and provide propulsion for flying cars.

Designed to be flexible enough to absorb bumps in the road,the airless tyre concept is also strong enough to rotate at the high speeds needed to create vertical lift.

Goodyear has also flagged a concept vehicle that in the distant future would use magnetic propulsion to spin the wheels at the speed required for take off.

The futuristic concept also could become an integral part of driverless car tech.

Goodyear believes such a vehicle could use artificial intelligence to communicate with other vehicles and surrounding infrastructure to decide whether driving or flying was the best option.

For now, the tyre is still the stuff of science fiction but it gives an insight into another aspect of future transportation.

Goodyear aero tyre concept can rotate fast enough to provide lift and propulsion.

Goodyear technology chief Chris Helsel says the company needs to think ahead to provide the hardware for future mobility.

“With mobility companies looking to the sky for the answer to the challenges of urban transport and congestion, our work on advanced tyre architectures and materials led us to imagine a wheel that could serve both as a traditional tyre on the road and as a propulsion system in the sky,” says Helsel.