While gamers are losing their minds at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas this week, Movin?On?formerly known as the Michelin Challenge Bibendum?is going down in Montreal. The global summit explores topics of sustainability, mobility, and how to effectively and efficiently blend the two. It was the perfect and obvious place for Michelin to unveil its new tire concept, the Vision, an airless, spongelike 3D-printed dream that Michelin claimed is “within reach.”
Movin?On focuses on six central themes: changes in passenger and goods transport, energy efficiency and safety, digital technology and artificial intelligence, financial and regulatory tools, the circular economy, and “long shots.” Michelin thinks the Vision touches on each element. There’s probably a heavy emphasis on “long shot,” but, hey, Michelin eventually found applications for its Tweel, a formerly crazy airless-tire idea that also generated competition from Bridgestone. Michelin now sells Tweels for lawn mowers, golf carts, and utility vehicles.
Said to be inspired by nature, the Vision blends wheel and tire functions into one unit. It looks like a combination of fire coral, a sand dollar, neurons, and a Scotch-Brite scrubber, but that look is not just a look. It all feeds into the concept’s multifunctionality.
The project, which began last year, starts by eliminating one of the biggest consumer tire issues: the need to maintain proper air ...