Hankook Tire Unveils the ‘TRANSFORMING TIRE’ for the Fourth Campaign of ‘The Next Driving Lab’

• - Hankook Tire presents a ‘TRANSFORMING TIRE’ that changes its shape according to various road conditions
• - The Campaign embodies Hankook Tire’s innovative brand value to dream and create next generation’s driving

January 2, 2019 (Seoul, Korea) -Global leading premium tire maker, Hankook Tire (President & CEO Hyun Bum Cho) unveiled the video of the ‘TRANSFORMING TIRE’, the fourth output of ‘The Next Driving Lab’ project that demonstrates its innovative commitment to future driving, on January 2, 2019.

The fourth campaign of ‘The Next Driving Lab’, which provides a new and innovative future driving experience through futuristic tires, introduces ‘TRANSFORMING TIRE’, which transforms its shape in response to various road conditions, embodying the leadership and innovative brand value of Hankook Tire to leap closer to future driving.

The project started by challenging stereotypes about tire shapes, something that has never changed since the development of tires. Until now, tires have been designed to only allow the variation of tread and flatness ratio (ratio of sectional height and width of tires) to the performance necessary for road surface, climate change and operation, based on its original circular shape.

Hankook Tire collaborated with Professor Kyu-Jin Cho’s BioRobotics Lab from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, who won first place in the 2016 RoboSoft Grand Challenge. As a result, Hankook Tire and BioRobotics Lab developed a variable-type tire that can change the tire shape, allowing drivers to imagine a future driving experience capable of stable, high-speed driving on any road surface with a single tire.

'The Next Driving Lab' project is a campaign of challenge and innovation that conveys the slogan 'Who Creates the Driving?', and introduced the ‘Digital Creative Car’ at downtown Seoul as the first project in 2013. In 2014, ‘Mind Reading Tire’, a tire powered by a human’s brainwave, was released as the second project. In 2015, the ‘Ball Pin Tire’, which is capable of moving in a full 360-degree circle, was unveiled as the third project.

“TRANSFORMING TIRE has started from this question: why should a tire be in one form? Our highly successful The Next Driving Lab campaign will be an opportunity to convey the innovative DNA of Hankook Tire, which has been continuously challenging the limits of tires,” said Mr. Seungbin Lim, Senior Vice President of Hankook Tire Marketing Division. He added, “Hankook Tire will continue to display our authentic challenge spirit as well as our innovative brand values by releasing a variety of new and experimental products for our customers.”

The Next Driving Lab campaign was launched in 2013 with the unveiling of Hankook Tire’s Digital Creative Car on the streets of Seoul, Korea. The campaign’s next venture was the viral Mind Reading Tire showpiece, which featured a tire capable of responding to brainwave commands. Third project revealed was an innovative 360-degree Rotating “Ball Pin Tire”. The upcoming campaign video of the ‘TRANSFORMING TIRE’ is available on Hankook Tire’s website (www.hankooktire.com) or the official Hankook Tire’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/hankooktirekorea1).