Continental tires that inflate themselves while you drive

With its CARE solution, Continental proposes tires designed for autonomous, connected driving, capable of adjusting pressure on the go.

Its name already tells us a lot about the technological solutions included in the proposal from Continental for tires of the future, intended for electric and autonomous cars that will spend most of their time in shared mobility scenarios. It is called Conti C.A.R.E., an acronym in English for Connected, Autonomous, Reliable and Electric.

The most significant thing about these tires of the future is that connectivity makes their management possible in a sustainable way. They can also be managed through a web application to optimize costs for fleet management. And that’s not all: they are capable of adjusting pressure on the go.

If you thought you had seen it all in tires…

To achieve all this, Conti CARE is based on a conventional tire, which incorporates integrated sensors in its structure to evaluate all relevant data: tread depth, pressure, temperature… The evaluation of this data through the control system called ContiSense, and its transmission to the ContiConnect Live base, allows fleet operators to manage the mobility of their vehicles efficiently.

This is nothing new; in fact, it has been used in competition for years. And Michelin, to name one, takes advantage of connected tires with its Michelin Track Connect solution, which is already on the market.

More novel and interesting is the possibility of adjusting tire pressure in real time, using centrifugal pumps integrated into each wheel. Continental calls this technology PressureProof. These pumps generate compressed air by taking advantage of centrifugal forces when accelerating, which helps keep tire pressure at the right level at all times, improving fuel consumption and tire life and enhancing safety.

In addition, this technology offers the possibility of storing excess compressed air in a small integrated reservoir, in order to adapt tire pressure to each driving situation (with or without load, high-speed motorway driving, etc.).

Related information of interest

-Michelin UPTIS: the tire that doesn’t puncture
-Michelin TPMS: the best tire pressure monitoring system for your tires
-Continental: real-time control of connected tires