Behold! The 360 degree, spherical tyre of the future!

So what do you think to this future-concept spherical 360 tyre from Goodyear?

This idea, called the Eagle-360, has been debuted at the Geneva Motor Show and although it looks largely like one of those wishful-thinking projects it does throw up a couple of ideas that are incredibly interesting for our next-generation rubber interaction.

In particular, Goodyear shows a compound nestled between the grooves of the tyre that changes how it acts when it comes into contact with wet conditions. It also touts the idea of the blocks of the tread itself changing how flexible and reactive they are in relation to changing road surfaces.

No doubt the spherical tyre is what we’re all meant to be goggle-eyed about, and imagine what a motorcycle of the future that can utilise this tech would be able to do, but Goodyear seems fixated on this tech going into automated driverless vehicles of the future. Boo.

Anyway, here’s the video: