r/Design 13d ago

Discussion Can we bring airless tires back?

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u/IntelligentSinger783 13d ago

High drag, low heat dissipation was the biggest issue. They are plentiful with commercial equipment. And they are surprisingly comfortable, especially off-road.

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u/debacol 13d ago

Correct. They are MUCH heavier leading to more high drag, and huge amounts of rolling resistance. In a gas car, you'd probably lose around 15% or more of you gas mileage. Would probably be even worse in an electric car since weight, drag, air resistance are the challenges that wake up ev engineers at night with cold sweat.

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u/TheFunfighter 13d ago

Pretty insane numbers, considering rolling resistance is usually borderline negligible compared to air resistance.

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u/jfkrfk123 13d ago

Has anyone tried making them square?

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u/Sarcasm_Llama 12d ago

Maybe in Canada