Hankook and Royal College of Art develop innovative tire concepts

Automotive Design, Technology 7 Dec 2018

Hankook has revealed three futuristic concept tires, developed in collaboration with the Royal College of Art.

The concept tires – winners of the 2018 Design Innovation project – were first revealed at the company’s “Design Insight Forum” that took place at the Technodome R&D Center in Daejeo, South Korea, and were recently on display at the 2018 Essen Motor Show along the new high-end tire Ventus S1 evo 3.

Hankook Tire has been holding a Design Innovation Project every two years in collaboration with prestigious design schools.

This year’s project was held under the theme of ‘Extending Future Life beyond Mobility’ in association with UK’s Royal College of Art.

Participants of the project were asked to create a new tire concept using autonomous driving technology, proposing a whole new experience to future driving life.

The entries were thoroughly evaluated based on empathy towards end user, attractiveness, implementation of persuasive engineering principles and such.

The selection process brought to define three winning designs, the Aeroflow, HLS 23, and Hexonic.

Aeroflow Concept Tire

The Aeroflow is a racing tire with maximum downforce. The fact that downforce was the main focus during the development of the idea is what makes this tire unique, since downforce was only traditionally studied in relation to the body of a car.

Hexonic Concept Tire

The Hexonic is a smart tire for shared autonomous vehicles. The participant viewed fully-autonomous cars to be the norm for future cities and developed a tire for shared cars.

As autonomous cars do not have a driver, comfortability is the key to driving experience. Hexonic helps the vehicle achieve the best performance by scanning the road real time with seven sensors that are on the tire tread.

HLS23 Tire Concept

The third project, named HLS 23, is a tire designed for commercial vehicles in a futuristic logistics transport system.

These tires can support unmanned transport carriers. With sensors on each side, the tires monitor the location of another HLS 23, maintaining a consistent distance while delivering a cargo. Depending on the size and weight of the deliverables, the tires can operate individually or in assembled groups.