The idea behind these segmented, eight-part wheels is that your car can take a turn while maintaining speed and traction by having the wheels lean like the Tower of Pisa,
No one has ever created a remote controlled tire before? Really? I’m shocked. Believe it or not, only one company was crazy enough to develop an RC tire, and that is a Vietnamese company named Tosy. In fact, because of its odd shape and apparent capability to move forward, backward, left and right–I’m not even sure this thing really exists. Still, the product is up on the Tosy site–sans pricing and availability information. [Tosy via DVICE]
If Coda’s claims are true, their Self Inflating Tires in development now seem like an inevitable future for car owners. The simple mechanism works with classic principles of a peristaltic pump: a tube is placed in each tire’s sidewall. As it’s run over, the tube’s compression forces air in (filling the tire). A cut-off makes sure the tire doesn’t explode. That’s it. Sound too good to be true? Maybe. But having all tires on the road at optimal inflation could lead to a huge gas/energy savings every year (and as our friends at Jalopnik point out, it’s pretty good for safety as well). So our ears are perked waiting for more information. (Note: the choice for no hyphen was that of the manufacturer, not our editors.) AU: And the choice to spell them “tires” was also the manufacturers choice, not your local editor’s.
Apparently, Kumho’s skid ‘n’ sniff tires are going out to the “trend-setting, fashion-conscious drivers” who want their cars to rock something that no one else has: the sweet smell of lavender. Now then, while I wholeheartedly applaud Kumho’s decision to bring something so unique to wheelwear, I question the choice of fragrance. Surely “Eau de Roadkill” or “Rocker’s Crotch” would have been more marketable than the scent most associated with a slightly incontinent old queen who thrilled millions during her lifetime—no, not Liberace, I’m talking about Britain’s late, lamented Queen Mother. Full blurb from Tire Rack’s product page is below.
newVideoPlayer("gizpitcrew.flv", 475, 286,"gizmodo_ces_2008.png");When the Gizmodo Crew isn’t working, their favourite hobby is to pretend they are a world famous F1 pit crew. So when CES was finally over, they headed over to the BMW booth to test their pit stopin’, tire changin’ skills. With teams of two on each side of the BMW F1 car, the Giz pit-crew raced head-to-head to swap out the car’s tires. As you’ll see in the video, Team 2 (Adam Frucci / Benny Goldberg Goldman) beat Team 1 (Haroon Malik and Matt Buchanan) by a huge time of 1.2 seconds. Since both teams have the same coach, Wilson Rothman, he didn’t know if he should celebrate the win, or beat the losers; but in the end Rothman was still comfortable stating, “We’re the best around, and nothin’s ever gonna keep us down.”
To check your car’s air pressure, you could get an air pressure gauge, or kick the tyres, but that wouldn’t be quite as geeky as this aftermarket tyre pressure monitor. Four caps with sensor read each tyre’s pressure and relay it wirelessly to the dashboard-mounted LCD. The setup also informs you if your tyre rapidly deflates, alerting you of a flat. Coo, but two problems:
