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Continental are one of the biggest names in the tyre business but that’s not all they do. It’s hard to name a single car on the market that doesn’t have some component supplied by this huge company. Regularly, they invite us up to the frozen North to try their latest tyres but this year, we’d also get a chance to test some of their active safety systems. Our trip began in a classroom, about half way up Sweden. For a thoroughly fascinating afternoon, the boffins explained their latest breakthroughs, including intelligent tyres and wheels capable of altering rim width and pressure to adapt to prevailing conditions. Intelligent tyres are three to five years away. Already, we have tyres with embedded pressure sensors which pass their data to the car over a radio link. These prototypes are conductive and the data passes through the tyre itself. They are also able to instantly detect a puncture and can measure temperature, pressure, tread …
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