How Tires Teach Us About AI: From Mesopotamia to Modernity

Technology should be moving us from one place to another. Did we forget?

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a design for a snow tire that can extend alloy or titanium claws and retract them given surface road conditions, to protect roads. It occurred to me tonight that I’m working on “AI” in the sense that we’re always creating processes and artifacts. Please have a look. I’ll start with some reader interest on the greatest technological development of all—the wheel. Some bit of potted history here…

The Evolution of the Wheel and the Problem of Traction

The wheel, one of humanity’s earliest technological triumphs, changed everything. The first wheels, thought to be created around 3500 BCE in Mesopotamia, were solid wood discs—useful for hauling heavy loads but impractical for speedy transport. Spoked wheels arrived with the Bronze Age, a boon to chariot design. They reduced the burden on labor and allowed for swifter movement across battlegrounds and trade routes, marking the beginning of a long story about how technology would continually extend the boundaries of human capability.

Still, problems remained. Even the Romans, with their meticulous road-building, struggled with the bugbear of wheeled transport: traction. Stone-paved roads turned slippery in rain and dangerous in frost, and caused no doubt countless carts to slide into disaster. For centuries, wheels and roadways improved in tandem, but solutions to wet, icy, or unstable conditions lagged far behind.

By the 17th century, the Industrial Revolution was transforming transport. Wooden wheels became reinforced with iron bands, creating the first precursors to the modern tire. But iron-shod wheels had a fatal flaw: they offered zero grip on mud or snow. Travelers along Britain’s turnpikes often had to stop and apply rope or chains to their wheels, a painstaking process that inspired the first designs for grooved surfaces.

Rubber entered the picture in the 19th century. Indigenous peoples of Central and South America had been using natural latex for centuries. They rubber coated footwear to waterproof it. Early European experimenters recognized it’s latent value for transportation but struggled with stabilizing the substance for their envisioned purposes. It melted in the heat and cracked in the cold—earning the nickname "gum elastic." It wasn’t until 1839, when Charles Goodyear discovered vulcanization—a process that stabilized rubber—that it became useful for industrial applications, including tires. It’s difficult to oversell the importance of rubber to transportation. If the modern world has seen exponential technological change, a critical point on the curve would be the taming of rubber from the New World.

The first rubber tires, created in the mid-19th century, were solid—not pneumatic—and they offered some durability but little comfort. This was fine for carts and carriages, but as bicycles gained popularity in the 1880s, the demand for smoother rides surged. In 1845, Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson patented the pneumatic tire, which used air to absorb shocks, making rides smoother and more efficient. The idea lay dormant until 1888, when John Boyd Dunlop reintroduced it for bicycles. Dunlop’s reinvention spurred a wave of innovation and led by degrees to the modern air-filled tire we know today.

The 20th century ushered in radial tires, which had profound impact on automotive performance. Introduced by Michelin in 1946, radials increased durability and improved fuel efficiency. But despite these advances, traction issues persisted. Studded tires, developed in the mid-20th century, became a popular solution for icy roads but caused significant damage to asphalt. Chains were effective but cumbersome and noisy, a last resort for harsh winters.

Tire technology has advanced along a clear trajectory, yet it has always been constrained in ways that challenged and often perplexed entrepreneurs and designers. By the 1960s, Goodyear experimented with a "polyglas" tire reinforced by fiberglass, while other manufacturers toyed with steel-belted designs. Despite these innovations, no single tire design could perfectly adapt to every condition. Snow, ice, and rain remained a nemesis. Then came the Great War.