Slow down, they need to find a way to manufacturer planned obsolescence into them first. In America, you cannot have revolutionary technology without waiting for the existing monopolies to hop on the band wagon.

There are solid tyres available for forklifts and such which could negate the problem you are mentioning. But the issue is the more the rubber the more energy it consumes. There is no way around it. It’s rubber inherent property. It is precisely why it’s used as it softens the ride by sapping energy obtained by unevenness of the road.

The other reason is heat. Since it saps away the energy, it manifests as heat inside the tyre and since it’s a poor conductor of heat it can’t dissipate it away fast and if it gets hot enough, tyre comes apart. So due to this you can see it is only limited to forklift speeds of 10-15 mph.

Believe me when I say, dealing with rubber is a can of worms with material modeling to manufacturing and maximizing performance of it.

Patches work just fine, and as a printing enthusiast, printable treads just sound terrible.