this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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That does not address the issue at all. The problem is that tires wear, and the particles of tire rubber that are shed are the microplastics.
A tire that lasts a lifetime would shed less particles than ~~one that needs replacing every so many miles~~ all the tires used in the same timeframe, would it not?
Here's the problem with tires.
If you want long treadwear, you use harder material. But then you get worse traction.
If you want good traction, you use softer material. But then you get worse treadwear.
If you want a car to perform safely on public roads, its tires necessarily need to wear away as they are used. Electric vehicles are presently even worse on tires, as they weigh so much more than ICE vehicles.
The reason tires need replacing is because they're relatively thin. Airless tires aren't wear-less tires.
Not to mention that airless tires make for a horrible ride.
Actually earlier prototypes were wear-less, from both companies that were developing them.
As for the horrible ride, from what I've seen, that's not a problem. But even if it was perhaps that should be solved by other aspects of the car.
There is, fundamentally, one measurement that defines everything about the performance characteristics of a car: the amount of force it can impart on the road (and vice versa). This single measure defines its limits of acceleration, turning and braking. And what determines how much of that force is available?
The tires, and the coefficient of friction of the rubber compound they're made of, which is directly related to how quickly they wear. Every possible solution that makes tires wear less will also make cars perform worse.
...Well, short of drastically reducing weight (i.e. making a bicycle instead of a car).
...Or swapping them out for steel and running the thing on rails (i.e. making a train instead of a car).
They're not prototypes, they exist and they're called tweels. They're only really useful for low-speed industrial equipment where ride quality is a low priority.
The amount of time a tire lasts ultimately has fuck-all to do with whether it's airless or penumatic; it has to do with how much traction it provides and how large/heavy a vehicle it's supporting. Any tire that is good at its job of providing traction to a big, heavy vehicle like an automobile (and SUVs / EVs / EV SUVs only make this worse) is going to pollute a fuck-ton compared to, say, a bicycle tire or the steel wheel on rail public transit.
Not if the way it lasts a lifetime is by being made of the same material that wears off but being made of more of it. 🤷♂️
Rubber+friction=micro plastics
Rubber is quite literally the sap of a rubber tree. Latex. They mix other materials in with it, but this is one instance where I don't think the rubber is the issue.
It's the fillers they put in the rubber; Nylon, Rayon, Polyester, etc.
Tires are about 25% steel fibers, another 30%ish filler materials, and Rubber (either synthetic or natural)
Tires are a part of life. We can make small changes until we improve public transport infrastructure across the world or we can continue as we have done and drive this planet to extinction.
Tires are not "a part of life!" Humanity did just fine without them until not much more than a century ago, despite not having much public transit back then, either.
You know what the real difference, and the real solution today is? Walkable, dense zoning.
I would love to force everyone to walk their kids to school, but things are fucked. Sadly it takes a while to teach us to unlearn things. Even iny borough in London, they're dragging their heels on licensing ebikes and that hurts everyone.
For those who didn't read the article or aren't following EU politics, Euro 7, passed in April, explicitly addresses the need for reining in pollution from brakes and tires. Some more information here:
There's a new Euro standard "major version" every 5.8 years on average, so here's hoping that my outdoor furniture will soon not become completely blackened within a year after the last cleaning.