We have to act smart now dude. Especially that many components of cars these days have “smart,” “intelligent” or “adaptive” systems for many parts. The next frontier for intelligent systems is one of the most low tech parts, that being the tires themselves. Intelligent tires are being developed and might be available on automobiles in a few years' time. You can buy the car that has as much technology as possible currently.

Edited by Avant on 05/05/2012 at 00:54

Well, of course putting sealant into a tyre won't, as such, prevent punctures, but will stop the tyre going down until the puncturing object can be removed and the tyre repaired, and the tyre should be repaired at the earliest opportunity. Now, with a car tyre, it may not be noticed for a while that there is a puncturing object stuck in it! This isn't the case with bicycle tyres! I was saved from certain death by having 'OKO Tyre Sealant' in my bicycle tyres many years ago. OKO is (or was) a green snot-like substance which contains tiny fibres which will block small punctures. Riding home from work downhill on a Winter evening, nose-to-tail cars scraping past on my right and lamposts only a foot to my left (they've now been moved back as planners now think about safety) there was a bang as my back tyre went over something sharp. Expecting the bicycle to start 'fishtailing' and knowing that braking would just make things worse, I desperately looked for somewhere to crash-land, but my only choice was to hit a lampost or a car! But..,. nothing happened! The tyre didn't deflate! At the bottom of the hill I stopped and checked the tyre. A curved piece of glass from the top of a bottle had gone in with two prongs like a staple. If I had removed the glass, the tyre would have gone down; the sealant isn't that good, so I Ieft the glass in and continued the last eight miles home, and it got me home, where I could repair the inner-tube in comfort. So there is a use for having sealant permanently in a tyre, but perhaps just bicycle tyres and maybe not car tyres.

Many years ago, I put this sealent that is supposed to be left in tyres into a virtually new car tyre with a puncture to see what happened. The sealent was for ride on mowers, and I added 3 bottles at £3 a pop.

All that happened is that it would cause an unballanced wheel sensation at ~60mph at the start of journies until it had settled out.

Worse still, it sprayed out of the puncture at high motorway and dual carriageway speeds and made a wet ring inside the wheel arch liner.

When I did have the tyre replaced there was virtually no mess and it was not on the wheel itself.