Re-engineering tires, seat belt

[MrJones390]

Model S is the best car I've ever owned, and makes such vast improvements in pretty much every area over normal cars. The technology, performance and environmental friendliness are years ahead of its time; however, two places it is the same as other cars are the tires (wear and tear, road noise...etc) and the seat belt (having to manually buckle).

1. I'm wondering if Tesla put in the same effort in re-engineering tires -- designing from the ground up -- as they do for the rest of the car, could they make a next-gen tire that solves these problems? Are they even trying to do this, exploring different designs, materials etc.? Or are tires as good as they'll ever be?

2. I'd love to see an automatic seat belt that works perfectly. If it's possible to make a robotic arm for charging, seems possible that a robotic arm or some other method could buckle the seat belt.

Full disclosure: I've chewed through thousands of dollars worth of 21" tires so I'm a bit biased in wanting this

What other parts of the car have not been improved over ICE?

 

[JPP]

FWIW, Model S with 19's now ship with a new Tesla specific Goodyear Eagle Touring tire with internal noise deadening foam. I assume TM worked with Goodyear on this.

Aside: I have a friend/colleague with a Signature S (2012) which came with 21's. He finally gave up--too many damaged/ worn out tires & rims. He just picked up a full set of the new Goodyear tires and factory Slipstream 19's from a TMC member who was upgrading to a custom set.

 

[jaguar36]

Seems like the problem is you have the wrong tires. What you want is tires that prioritize tread life and noise, but the 21" tires are performance tires. They are designed for maximum grip which sacrifices wear and noise.