Hankook Tire Presents ‘Design Innovation 2020,’ a Proposal for the Future

Nashville, Tenn. (November 9, 2020) – Leading global tire maker Hankook Tire unveils its ‘Design Innovation 2020’ project, presenting a vision for future driving and innovation in mobility, on the Hankook Tire YouTube channel.

Launched in 2012, ‘Design Innovation’ is Hankook’s R&D project held every two years in collaboration with the University of Cincinnati, one of the world’s leading design universities. Concepts developed  were selected by Hankook Tire’s team of designers and engineers, who then developed the concepts further to bring the visionary ideas  to life. Through joint research, the project puts forward a vision for the future of driving and develops solutions that tackle today’s challenges.

Under the theme ‘Urban Reshaping,’ professors and students from the Department of Industrial Design at the University of Cincinnati focused on the transformation of cities by reconfiguring mobility as part of living spaces rather than a traditional stand-alone purpose. As cities become more interconnected, the futuristic concepts feature augmented automation infrastructure, cutting-edge eco-friendly technology, autonomous driving and artificial intelligence (AI) to help create more sustainable mobility and cleaner and more efficient cities.

Throughout the project, a modular platform concept named ‘Hankook Platform System (HPS)-Cell’ was proposed with tires representing the root of mobility. It is applied with ‘Hankook Electric Mobility Technology (H.E.M.),’ which represents Hankook’s passion for future technological breakthroughs. This year’s project distinguishes mobility as a moving platform and its function as a pod (space), clearly elaborating that tires indeed sit at the center of mobility.

The tire of HPS-Cell embodies an airless tire’s double-layered unit-cell structure to acquire complex rigidity. It is a concept tire that uses sensor technology to not only identify tire treads and road conditions in real time, but also to respond to wear-out risks and change tread patterns according to the road condition, utilizing variable wheels and optimized infrastructure.

The scenario was brought into reality in a concept film, suggesting that in 2040, urban populations will be able to use this mobility platform combined with pods of various forms to meet a specific purpose. The modular platform can also be combined with commercial pods such as urban farming to maximize the scalability and efficiency of movement within smart cities of future generations.

The videos are available on Hankook’s YouTube channel and represent Hankook’s capabilities in design innovation globally.

“Hankook Tire is incorporating new ideas with our cutting-edge technology to explore design concepts for the next generation, as Hankook believes creativity is the first step towards bringing the imagination into reality,” said Jimmy Kwon, Vice President of Hankook Tire Brand Lab. “We are more than excited to present this year’s works as they speak for the essence of the future mobility that Hankook envisions.”

Hankook, as a global top-tier company, is making efforts to stay proactive in response to the fast-changing world of future mobility and strengthening its leading role in making technological progress. As part of its efforts, the company is securing original technologies through utilization of its global R&D network as well as the Hankook Technodome, the high-tech research facility that plays a key role as the central hub. Hankook is also carrying out future-oriented projects such as the ‘The Next Driving Lab’ campaign, which provides new and innovative future driving experiences that have never been encountered before through its futuristic tires.