Continental Tyres introduced two new tyre technology concepts that will change the road safety and comfort game – they’re called the ContiSense and ContiAdapt. They will be continuously monitor the tyre’s condition as well as actively match the tyre’s performance depending on the road conditions. That’s crazy!
ContiSense is essentially uses sensors to detect the tread and temperature of the tyre which will send signals to a receiver in the car. If anything punctures the tyre, an immediate alarm will trigger the driver – faster than current available systems, which only warns the driver the tyre pressure has already begun to drop. Data can be transmitted to the vehicle electronics or via bluetooth to a smartphone.
ContiAdapt on the other hand combines micro-compressors into the wheel to automatically adjust the tyre’s pressure. The system can modify the width of the wheel – yes you read correctly – to provide the most traction depending on road conditions.
For example if the road surface is slippery, it will widen the wheels contact with the road and lower the tyre pressure to deliver optimum grip. By contrast, if the roads are smooth and dry, it will narrow down its footprint and increase tyre pressure automatically for better fuel efficiency.
ContiSense and ContiAdapt are joined by a concept tyre that enables the benefits of both systems to be fully leveraged. The tyre design features three different tread zones for driving on wet, slippery or dry surfaces. Depending on the tyre pressure and rim width, different tread zones are activated and the concept tyre adopts the required “footprint” in each case. In this way, the tyre characteristics adapt to the prevailing road conditions or driver preferences.
Continental see both these tyre technologies as promising concepts for the future which would require tyres to adapt and meet the needs of automated driving. They follow after the ContiSilent technology which reduces road and tyre noise and the ContiSeal, an automatic sealing feature for punctures.
