

Tweel – Airless Wheel - vinchuco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweel

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bjackman
Love the comment about water evacuation through holes reducing hydroplaning.

I'd love to know what's holding these back. Perhaps it's just a higher
cost:MTBF ratio, and one day it will surpass regular tyres. Perhaps they're
really truly better, but pneumatic tyres are just Good Enough. Perhaps there's
a fundamental flaw in the idea that only experts can see. Probably we'll never
know.

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cc438
They have a terrible NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) profile. The
deformation of the tire in motion produces significantly more noise than a
traditional tire due to the larger amount of material and greater stiffness
required for the support structure. These high levels of "tire noise" are the
main hold up for consumer applications as the tweel has caught on in low-speed
applications when durability outweighs cost considerations.

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pavel_lishin
Wasn't there a lot of concern awhile back about electric cars being too
silent, and therefore dangerous to pedestrians, etc who can't hear them
coming?

Maybe noisy wheels are a better solution than playing artificial engine noises
through loudspeakers.

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wmeredith
They also used to put fake horses out in front horseless carriages. This will
pass.

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eric_h
I didn't believe you, so I googled it.

Not convinced that it was ever produced, but still:

[http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1...](http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1657686_1657662,00.html)

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ch
This looks great, and has some very compelling benefits. I'd be curious to
know what their performance is likewhen caked in road ice like we get here in
the northeast after a few rounds of snow clearing and melt and freeze cycles
(the prototype on the Wikipedia shows the spoke pattern to be very deep).

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baldeagle
just reads like a press release. All the positives are very positive, and the
negatives are both very mild and eplained away as solved in later versions.
For example they mention minde deflection and the possibility of reducing
hydroplanning but do not mention noise or vibration issues at highway speeds.

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Involute
"... the initial prototype automotive Tweel tires did demonstrate flaws with
regard to noise and high speed vibration ..."

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jbob2000
The entire automotive industry makes way too much money on tires for them to
allow something like this to develop.

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binoyxj
Reinventing the wheel
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinventing_the_wheel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinventing_the_wheel)

