If you live in a cold place where it snows frequently during the winter months, you probably know how important it is to put snow chains on your tires. But in the future, your tires may have built-in snow chains that appear with the push of a button.
This idea surfaced online with a concept shared by Hyundai and Kia. The new wheel and tire design includes built-in snow chains that can be deployed or retracted at any time. Such a system could make fitting snow chains to your tires much easier and completely change the way we approach winter driving.
In a new video shared on YouTube, Hyundai and Kia show how new tires with built-in snow chains will work. According to Hyundai, the snow chains placed on the tires can extend and cover the tires with the push of a button. The rest of the time, the chains sit in the recesses on the tires.
Although the snow chains here look more like wires, they can provide the necessary traction in the same way as traditional snow chains. These wires are made partly from compressed shape memory alloys that stretch when an electric current is passed through them. When the current is cut off, the wires are withdrawn and placed directly into the cavities designed inside the tires.
Unfortunately, this concept is still far from development. To be made a reality, it would first require a complete overhaul of the tire design that cars currently use, especially since they would need electrical currents to penetrate the tire and extend the built-in snow chains. However, it is certain that this will be an impressive development that Hyundai and Kia want to present in the future.
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This particular design has now been trademarked by two companies in South Korea and the United States. Additionally, Hyundai says that since the spokes that make up the built-in snow chains will be exposed even when retracted when the tires are too worn, these chains will serve as a good indicator for determining when the tires on your vehicle are too worn and need to be replaced.
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