Smart mobility is as relevant as ever, with growing urbanisation rates in almost all countries across the globe. But the concept isn’t new. At least I recall reading about the future of driving when I was very young, and a university project concluded that in the future, cars would be able to connect to each other and slide onto some sort of rail system when driving on the highway, so nobody would have to worry about steering or speeding when covering the long stretches of the journey. Not surprising, the project couldn’t have been more wrong in its conclusion. But why didn’t it work? It would have reduced accidents, pollutant emissions, road wear and maintenance costs, and it would have probably been quite easy to develop guiding chips and software to let cars in and out of the chain.

Well, the answer is simple, and is proven by the fact that car sales are still going up worldwide in spite of an ever-growing range of alternative transportation methods available to the buyers: freedom. As global wealth keeps increasing, all societies can recognize that the first luxury people growing out of poverty take is to buy a car, in many cases even before considering taking out a mortgage to buy a house. Why do they do that? Obviously to signal their increased wealth to the people around them (it’s harder to show if your house is bought or rented), but also to enjoy the freedom of being able to go exactly where they want to go and when. In these corona times being able to move about without bumping into others in public transportation is of course also an important factor. If this wasn’t the case, car sales would be dropping rapidly. Public transportation is cheaper, if you compare it to total cost of ownership of a car it’s easy math, and in many cases it’s also faster and easier. Plus, you can be productive getting some work done or enjoying a good rest when you don’t have to sit at the wheel in a traffic jam.

For those who care about global warming and reducing the environmental impact, there’s even further incentive to get rid of the car, but still, this is not what we see in the new car sales figures – although you could argue that some people buy a new car because it pollutes less than the old one.

Bicycles

With all the new technology, it will be very interesting to see how smart mobility will be implemented in cities across the globe, and if it will change the trend for good. After all, it’s be big cities with massive population numbers that will make a difference for the planet. If we look at a city like Copenhagen, it has for many years focused on being the world’s best city to ride a bicycle in, and it has implemented many innovative structures allowing cyclists to zip from one place to another in a matter of minutes with minimal need to stop along the way. Some places bridges have been built just to cater to cyclists. No doubt you can get around faster and cheaper in Copenhagen if you ride a bike than by any other means of transportation.

Another thing that is becoming increasingly interesting in the big cities is the drone technology, now we have seen Chinese firefighters putting out high-rise fires using drones controlled from the ground, and many places they have also begun working as parcel or food delivery agents. But is there a viable case to argue that we will all be flying in private drone vessels instead of driving in cars in the coming decade? I wouldn’t bet my money on it. First of all, it would take long until the general public would trust a drone manufacturer enough to not fear dropping to the ground or being flung into a building or another drone mid-air at any moment. Second of all, they would most definitely run on electricity, which we know from electric cars means very heavy batteries and/or short operation times. Probably in colder regions you would also struggle with much lower performance during winter, and possibly weather conditions not allowing them to take off.

That’s another nightmare scenario – to be caught in a thunderstorm or hailstorm up in the air.

Naturally, the ultimate challenge would be that everyone would basically need to have a pilot license to operate them, and air traffic control would be an entirely new concept in this scenario. We have all seen movies like Stars Wars or The Fifth Element where flying vehicles somehow get into invisible lanes and layers, but it’s hard to see how that can go from fiction to reality.

Urban hubs

So, how can consumers most likely have their desire for freedom fulfilled within a smart mobility concept? Most likely by creating urban hubs or city line parking facilities, so it’s easy to take the car to, from, or between cities, but not inside them. At these hubs, you would park the car and jump on the next shuttle to anywhere in the city, or even ride a bike that you brought with you. Designing these hubs, along with ample green areas in the cities, is the only way that any city planner can create the grounds for real smart mobility, and not take people’s freedom away from them. Then the only thing left is to address the issue of the environmental impact caused by passenger cars, both combustion engine emissions and tyre pollution from wear during use and waste management at end of tyre life.

Tyre manufacturers don’t seem to be making huge changes to the technology yet, except for a few innovative products like the Michelin Tweel – and the ultimate challenge is of course that the vehicle so far has to be in contact with the road surface to move and handle satisfactorily. It’s hard to imagine any tyre concept where rubber against the road surface isn’t involved, and it’s also hard to imagine any tyre manufacturer supporting such a project, given the massive investments they have in their production equipment, which isn’t easy to readjust to put out something else. Well, at least not any serious manufacturer – there was a Chinese plant that stopped producing tyres this year to start producing face masks instead because of corona demand, but that probably says something about the quality of both products coming out of that factory, and it makes me very interested in reading their mission statement.

Ultimately, for tyre manufacturers to start investing in any game changing product development, we would have to see a development like we have seen with British Tobacco actually advertising against smoking – which is very much in line with the trends of the day but doesn’t seem rational from a business perspective. So, to conclude, I’ll venture a bet that we won’t see any drastic changes in how much smarter our mobility options will become until we either see a scenario that will allow people to experience the same level of freedom as owning a car, drastically reducing the environmental impact from driving and tyre waste, and/or creating cities where it utterly doesn’t make any sense to drive instead of hopping on the city’s smart mobility system, whatever that might turn out to be.

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Pirelli has chosen the softest trio in its range for the Mexico City Grand Prix, with the C3 as Hard, the C4 as Medium and the C5 as Soft. This departs from last year, when a compound step using the C2 as Hard proved less appealing than the softer alternatives. The second round of the Americas triple-header takes place at the circuit named after brothers Pedro and Ricardo Rodríguez, unique on the calendar due to its altitude of over 2,000 metres.

A large portion of the circuit has been resurfaced, covering Turn 16 to Turn 1 and Turn 7 to Turn 16, leaving only the first sector largely unchanged. New asphalt normally brings higher grip and lower roughness, though its actual characteristics will need assessment during the opening stages. The track is often dirty early on, with grip improving lap after lap, and that evolution could be more pronounced this year.

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez has traditionally been one of the least demanding circuits on tyres, with low-speed corners and limited lateral loads keeping wear under control. The thin air reduces aerodynamic load, increasing tyre slip and making graining a factor to watch, possibly more so with the smoother asphalt. The circuit's low severity could favour a one-stop race, though tyre management to extend stints will remain important, particularly for the rear axle.

Strategy may depend more on driver confidence in a compound than on genuine tyre life limitation, with some teams favouring softer compounds for grip and others the Hard for consistency. The Soft could play a central role, having shown strong characteristics on low-severity circuits. Braking performance also warrants monitoring, as the altitude reduces aerodynamic efficiency and the long main straight into Turn 1 could increase lock-up risk. Last year's grid was split between one-stop and two-stop strategies. This will be the sixth Grand Prix under the Mexico City Grand Prix name, with Max Verstappen the most successful driver at the venue with five victories, matching Red Bull. The Pirelli Podium Cap celebrates Día de los Muertos, which falls on race Sunday.

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Mitas marked its entry into Chinese agriculture with an official brand ceremony held on 27 October at the National Exhibition Center in Tianjin, during CIAME 2026, the China International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition. Customers, partners and industry figures attended the event, which introduced the international tyre maker and its agricultural portfolio to the local market.

Bringing close to 100 years of tyre manufacturing experience and enduring ties with farmers and equipment builders around the world, the company presents Chinese customers with a commercially available international option built on proven agricultural knowledge, technology and dependability. The dedicated exhibition booth featured the HC 2000 and SFT CHO. The former, a VF tractor tyre, delivers high load capacity at low inflation pressure alongside efficient traction and diminished soil compaction, achieved through a large contact patch and even load distribution. The latter, engineered for demanding cyclic-load duties, pairs high load capacity and low inflation pressure with a broad footprint for gentle ground handling. Both models demonstrated the brand's dedication to proven engineering and high-value performance for contemporary agriculture.

Going forward, the company plans to strengthen its Chinese footprint by collaborating closely with equipment manufacturers, distributors and farmers, deepening understanding of local applications and addressing the evolving requirements of Chinese agriculture.

Roberta D’Agnano, Global Marketing Director Mitas at Yokohama TWS, said, “Entering the Chinese market means bringing the strength of an established international brand to a new customer base. Mitas combines nearly a century of agricultural expertise with proven tyre technology and a clear focus on dependable performance. Our ambition is to establish Mitas as a reliable partner for Chinese farmers, distributors and equipment manufacturers, offering solutions that help them get the most from their machinery.”

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The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) has published its 2025 End-of-Life Tire Market Report, continuing a biennial series begun in the early 1990s. With over 30 years of figures on tyre generation, destination markets and stockpiles, the study stands as the nation's most thorough accounting of what happens to tyres after they leave the road.

Of the 273 million tyres retired nationwide in 2025, some 79 percent were absorbed by end-use markets. Only lead-acid batteries surpass tyres as a recycled and reclaimed material; paper, aluminium, glass and PET plastic all trail behind. The result is that valuable rubber stays in productive circulation rather than accumulating in landfills.

Abandoned and illegal stockpiles shrank to roughly 42.1 million tyres, compared with about 48 million two years earlier – a 12 percent drop in that span and a 96 percent fall from the billion-tyre high of 1990. Colorado's cleanup effort accounted for much of the gain, eliminating over 12 million tyres, while New Jersey and Pennsylvania recorded large reductions. North Carolina, Tennessee and Delaware cleared their stockpiles entirely, and land disposal declined nearly 11 percent to 779 thousand tonnes.

Tyre-derived fuel stayed the biggest outlet, taking about 1,317 thousand tonnes, with ground rubber just behind at roughly 1,201 thousand tonnes. Cement kilns consumed about 5 percent more, reaching 821 thousand tonnes – 62 percent of all tyre-derived fuel – as carbon-reduction mandates and the fuel's biogenic nature enhance its appeal. Reclamation applications expanded by roughly a tenth.

Most declines arose from forces outside the industry's influence. Pulp and paper mill shutdowns halved nothing less than 40 percent of that outlet, while revised Michigan energy rules trimmed utility boiler demand by about 22 percent. Synthetic turf continues yielding ground to cork, coconut husk and olive pit infill; moulded and extruded goods eased from a 2021 high; and energy price swings have shifted tyre-derived fuel's competitiveness. Exports, however, climbed 270 percent since 2023 – from 253 thousand tonnes to 936 thousand tonnes – making them the third-largest outlet, driven by India's rapid growth and sustained fuel shipments to Japan and South Korea. USTMA urges exporters to confirm that receiving markets are environmentally sound and economically viable.

Near-term investments include Tire Recycling Foundation-backed environmental product declarations, wider chip seal use, advances in dry-process rubber-modified asphalt and pavement funding. Kentucky devoted over USD 1.16 million in 2025 to nine county rubber-asphalt projects, and California opened USD 6.57 million in grants for fiscal 2025–26. Pyrolysis is now quantifiable as it reaches commercial scale, and the Tire Recycling Foundation is growing into a platform for education, research and demonstration. State-level stockpile figures accompany the report on the ELT Report page of the association’s website.

Anne Forristall Luke, president and CEO, USTMA, said, “This report gives a picture of a market in transition. Stockpile cleanup continues, and 79 percent of end-of-life tyres reached end-use markets. At the same time, several domestic markets contracted, and the rise in exports shows strong demand for this material outside the US Together, those trends tell us our markets still depend on a handful of large industrial outlets, and that market development has to be the priority. The data points to where the work is needed, and much of that work is already underway.”

Amelia Chucholowski, Associate Director, Sustainability and Recycling Policy, USTMA, said, “International demand further demonstrates that this material has real value, but our priority is domestic circular end-use markets, because a tire processed here supports a US recycler, US jobs and US infrastructure. That includes ensuring that domestic processors have adequate feedstock. We’re watching it closely and working with our global partners both to understand what’s driving this trend and to report it transparently.

“The work that actually grows these markets is underway right now, and almost none of it shows up in a 2025 market report. Read this report as a snapshot of 2025. What we’re building now will be measured against in the future. State programmes have built one of the country’s great recycling success stories. 96 percent of the tyre stockpiles that existed in 1990 are gone, and the lesson is clear: when states fund their programmes, enforce the rules and invest in markets, results follow. The next chapter is about markets. The more states invest in uses like rubber-modified asphalt, the more tires become roads, products and energy here at home.”

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PRINX CHENGSHAN showcased a lineup of agricultural tyres under its Chengshan brand at the 2026 China International Agricultural Machinery Exhibition (CIAME 2026) in Tianjin on 26 October. The display featured tyre solutions tailored to modern agricultural needs, with emphasis on large-scale field cultivation and fall harvesting applications.

Rising performance demands across smart, high-end and environmentally sustainable farming have prompted the company to steadily expand its research and development investment in agricultural tyre applications. PRINX CHENGSHAN has built a comprehensive portfolio for large agricultural machinery, including tractors and combine harvesters, delivering integrated solutions for varied operating conditions along with service support spanning the entire product life cycle.

The TX600 and TX700 radial tyres, intended mainly for tractors, each offer distinct advantages. The TX600 pairs large tread blocks with a proprietary cut- and puncture-resistant rubber compound, ensuring stable driving, dependable handling and puncture resistance during high-speed transfers between work areas. The TX700 employs a high-strength carcass and belt construction to deliver strong load capacity and traction, even in muddy, difficult fields.

For combine harvesters, the TX2000 raises load capacity by 20 percent through high-flexion characteristics, while its low inflation pressure and larger contact patch lessen soil compaction, reconciling efficient operations with farmland protection. The TB500 bias-ply tyre, a notable addition to the tractor range, features a deep tread and large, robust blocks for excellent traction, wear resistance and puncture resistance, sustaining stable, slip-resistant performance in mud and gravel.

Looking ahead, PRINX CHENGSHAN plans to continue advancing agricultural tyre innovation, targeting the evolving requirements of modern equipment and practical field challenges. The company aims to collaborate closely with partners throughout the agricultural machinery supply chain to enhance the quality and efficiency of modern farming and support a stronger agricultural sector and greater food security in China.

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