Falken manufacturer SRI debuting Active Tread next year

Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) confirms that it will introduce tyres featuring its ‘Active Tread’ technology in 2024. Active Tread will arrive with SRI’s next-generation all-season tyre.

Explaining the principles behind Active Tread, SRI recently described it as a “new technology that responds to changes in road conditions” such as the presence of water and ice by “actively changing the functional traits of tread rubber to optimise tyre performance for the current road surface and weather conditions.” While seeing the benefit of “uninterrupted safe driving” for all motorists, SRI considers Active Tread technology especially useful when autonomous vehicles face “sudden changes in road conditions.”

According to in-house estimates, SRI anticipates that all-season tyres will account for 25 per cent of all replacement tyre sales in Europe by 2030. The tyre maker’s figure for North America is a whopping 80 per cent, while it forecasts that they’ll hold a ten per cent share of Japan’s replacement tyre market.