In our ever-going efforts to discover the "next big thing," automakers are coming up with some simply silly sounding experiments. Michelin is hoping their latest prospect will gain some interesting traction. They're wooden tires.

The tire company first told Motoring in a report that they'd like to introduce wood to the development of tires. They believe it will be a greener substitute for oil.

Michelin's worldwide director of scientific and innovation communication Cyrille Roget spoke about the project. Their idea is to use elastomers (a fancy word for "stretchy material") built from wood chips in place of the oil in tires. Since about 4/5th of a tire uses materials coming from oil, this would dramatically reduce the company's carbon footprint.

"Trees grow everywhere. So you re-distribute the opportunity for everyone to have local sourcing. And they are renewable."


Should the idea grow to fruition, tires will not only be better for the planet but will last much longer as well. Michelin believes wood tires will break down slower. They also are throwing around the idea of "printing" new threads onto existing tires, giving them new life without having to change them out entirely. Though this is much farther down the company's list of pursuits.

So they aren't exactly Flintstones-style log wheels, but just different mixtures. Either way, I can dig it.