This is a great example of the illusion of explanatory depth [1]
You read the title and think "D'oh obviously traction", then you see the first picture in the article and think "Yep, obviously flatter tyres because traction", then you read a little more and think "Wait, what do they mean by flat?", ...
... and then it just keeps going deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole you never considered before and barely even noticed. You realize you didn't know shit.
The explanation ends up being steering feedback forces. Now I wonder if we can have deeper wheels again with modern electric motor power steering.
There’s a section on aerodynamics that explains why for any vehicle but especially EV’s can benefit. They give an example that flat wheels improve a model S coefficient of drag by 12%.
> The explanation ends up being steering feedback forces.
.... which, is used to communicate traction status back to the driver:
> The ability of forces to feed back to the driver meant there was significantly more “feel” for what the tires were doing and where the limits of adhesion were. (from the article)
You read the title and think "D'oh obviously traction", then you see the first picture in the article and think "Yep, obviously flatter tyres because traction", then you read a little more and think "Wait, what do they mean by flat?", ...
... and then it just keeps going deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole you never considered before and barely even noticed. You realize you didn't know shit.
The explanation ends up being steering feedback forces. Now I wonder if we can have deeper wheels again with modern electric motor power steering.
[^1] https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/the-illusion-of-explanator...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3062901/