HIP, A Visible Approach to the Next-gen Mobility Landscape

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HIP, A Visible Approach to the Next-gen Mobility Landscape

Move more safely, efficiently, and sustainably

Robots deliver quantity goods and services, and cars and trains travel to their destinations on their own. All objects move interconnectedly and the process is recorded as data. We live in an era where the fuel and power required for movement are sourced from nature.

The diversified evolution of the mobility landscape is closely associated with the bold vision and steps taken by the leading companies involved in the mobility industry. Those who not only navigate such changes, but also lay the groundwork for new changes with pioneering technology, will redefine the future.

What will the future of mobility hold?

Will there be mobile hospitals and restaurants, enabling multiple services on the move?

Will we be able to relocate our homes without having to move out and live in a new environment?

A platform developed by Design Innovation (a project in which Hankook Tire and prestigious design schools work together to study the future of mobility). This platform is designed to move widely-varying pods such as smart farms.

An era in which our wild imagination cultivates the root of innovation. Even at this very moment, new mobility options continue to emerge and evolve. No matter what type of mobility platform is invented in the future, the driving experience, the essence of tires, will expand to be ever more important. For you, a more pleasant and comfortable environment, a sense of being better protected, and an active sensibility inspired within that sense of security.

Hankook Tire has developed a contemporary belief in technology known as Hankook Innovative Performance (HIP) to offer the best-in-class driving experience and usher in continued innovation to the future of mobility. HIP portrays the following three values.

“HIP” serves as a guiding light that enables Hankook Tire's vast array of activities to develop an interactive relationship with each other and add synergy to our macroscopic goals. It also represents our belief in technology that portrays our commitment to the future of innovation set towards the ‘development of tire technologies’, ‘research on intelligent technologies’ such as autonomous driving and services offered in the sharing economy, and ‘environmentally friendly efforts’.

Lee Jinyoung (Team Leader, Product Strategy Team)

1. Driving

The value of trust for 'safety', the integral element of driving & driving sensibility that guides our future

In this era, our lives are dictated by mobility services that incorporate a myriad of high technologies, including electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and robotics. In the context of our times, the realm of mobility extends beyond the movement of people and objects to be the backbone of our life. This demonstrates the integral aspects of 'efficiency' shine as brightly as 'safety' in mobility. All technologies in the mobility economy are born out of the purpose to save fuel, personal energy, or the amount of time spent on movement.

As unmanned and automated systems undergo further development to maximize safety and efficiency, tires are on course to become ever more integral. If an unexpected accident such as a flat tire occurs in such a system, how do we deal with it? The key lies in developing a technology that completely prevents the risk of an accident in the first place.

Airless Tire
Intelligent tires promise safety, maintenance, and sustainability

Hankook Tire conducts research on new structures and materials applicable to the future of mobility through its Hankook iFlex to develop associated technologies and convert them for suitability to the marketplace. Airless tires represent Hankook iFlex's relentless efforts dedicated to driving innovation in the future of mobility.

Airless tires with a special structural design are the final component in a robust, yet flexible driving experience. Since their structure, and not their air pressure, enables them to support the weight of a vehicle, they are ideal for electric vehicles that are 300 kg heavier than internal combustion engine vehicles.

First of all, unlike conventional tires, airless tires have no air layers as the name suggests. Therefore, the promise of no more flat tires and no need to manage air pressure is real, and no flat tires means a longer service life. Another thing to note is innovation in the manufacturing and distribution process. Compared to conventional tires, it is easier to manufacture and replace airless tires due to their simpler structure and materials, thereby enabling a rapid response when faced with an emergency. Hankook iFlex technology, which ensures safety, maintainability, and sustainability, yields high expectations as a beacon of innovation that will unlock the full potential of the scalability and efficiency of mobility for future smart cities.

2. Intelligence

In a hyper-connected society, data from tires helps to build an optimal landscape of mobility

Soon enough, we will be living in a world of mobility where cars, road conditions, and traffic control systems are closely interconnected with each other. Even today, IoT-based platforms such as Uber and Grab*, fleet management*, and autonomous driving technologies continue to march forward. Then, what kind of technology do we require to build a stable social infrastructure based on digitalization, big data, and 5G? The answer lies in the close interconnection of intelligence technology through 'data'.

* Uber and Grab: Mobility as a service providers based in the United States and Southeast Asia, respectively.
The market where the applicable services are available continues to extend beyond mobility to encompass food delivery and digital payment services.
* Fleet management: As a service primarily used in logistics and distribution services, it leverages data obtained from vehicles to enable their optimal performance. Its data-driven remote diagnosis prevents unexpected vehicle breakdowns and its systematic plans enhance driving efficiency.

Sensing technology using tires

The tire, which is the only part that comes into direct contact with the road, is a sensitive tool that can gather a vast amount of road information. The tire sensing technology capitalizes on such properties of the tires to gather data on air pressure, temperature, load, speed, and much more through sensors attached to the tires. This technology enables the vehicle to detect any damage to the inside of the tire earl on, prevents accidents, and improves vehicle control.

Hankook Tire is dedicated to developing ‘I.Solution’, a technology designed to gather and analyze key information that directly affects tire performance in addition to other sets of important data, including risk factors such as potholes and black ice. If the mobility-based data on the road surface and tire performance connect to the live traffic conditions, any risk factors for road accidents can be shared as data with the drivers and related systems, enabling proactive measures to prevent any accidents on the road from occurring.

Hankook Tire, driven by its technological prowess, works in close collaboration with a diverse spectrum of partners to rapidly develop its own proprietary technologies and build the necessary infrastructure. A leading example is the 'Road Risk Detection Solution', inspired by its social contribution project jointly conducted with SK Planet.

Further details are available in the article 'Detecting road hazards with sound’

3. Sustainability

Aligning with eco-conscious values for bountiful growth with Planet Earth

Protecting the earth is everyone’s responsibility, amid unexpected and extreme weather conditions such as heavy rains, heat waves, and cold snaps continue to deepen their coverage. As global efforts are underway to save the earth, demand for corporations to undertake ESG-oriented management has risen exponentially, thus creating a social trend of consuming in consideration of corporate eco-conscious activities.
The same is true in the automobile market. In Scotland, whiskey waste and residues are recycled to fuel gas-powered vehicles, and leading automakers are building genuinely eco-friendly vehicles on account of the environment from the feedstock production process, by various means such as manufacturing batteries with green electricity and using renewable biomass as components.

Hankook Tire holds ESG-oriented management as its core value to underpin eco-consciousness and sustainability.

As a reward for our strenuous efforts to bolster ESG-oriented management, ‘Hankook Tire acquired the ISCC PLUS certificate for the first time in the tire industry.'

Hankook Tire continues with its eco-conscious efforts across the entire process from the tire design stage to assess the harmfulness of chemicals in products to the planning, production, and disposal stages. Our eco-friendly technology has been globally certified through ISCC PLUS.

ISCC PLUS (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification PLUS) is an international certification program for bio-based and circular raw materials under the European Renewable Energy Directive. From raw materials to final products, it is famous for its stringent screening procedures employed to assess the eco-friendliness of a network of industrial processes resulting in the production. In particular, since tires require a relatively complex manufacturing process, our acquisition of the 'industry's first ISCC PLUS certificate' bears great significance to the world.

Hankook Tire is focusing all of its efforts on research to reduce carbon emissions and the different kinds of environmental pollution, and to recycle energy using eco-friendly resources.

The ISCC PLUS-certified natural oil and biopolymer technologies are designed to replace the previous petrochemical oil with natural oil (soybean oil) to reduce the use of fossil fuel, and to substitute biochemical products (biopolymers) in place of petrochemical products (synthetic rubber) to contribute towards reducing carbon emissions.

Further details are available in the article 'Criteria that calls for ethical consumption, ISCC certificate'

No matter the kind of mobility platform that surfaces in the future, the varying facets of sensibility obtained from driving will remain as important as ever. Tires will also serve as a key medium to shift the paradigm of movement while connecting the future of mobility with driving sensibility. Within the bounds of its belief in technology known as HIP, Hankook Tire takes us beyond the simple concept of movement and builds on its technological evolution to reshape the mobility landscape for future generations.

HIP, A Visible Approach to the Next-gen Mobility Landscape

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