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"Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? These qualities are what [make] science fiction ...unique."
- Frederik Pohl

Spherical Tires  
  Tires that are shaped like balls, rather than like squat cylinders.  

This is an early mention of this idea, but there was so much innovation already by 1930 in the automotive field.

The young astronaut approached his tiny space flyer. It was shaped like an egg, except that it was more elongated, and the two ends tapered down to blunt points instead of being rounded. It was mounted upon four revolving metal spheres set into its keel instead of wheels as landing gear.
Technovelgy from The Death's Head Meteor, by Neil R. Jones.
Published by Air Wonder Stories in 1930
Additional resources -

Compare to the smartwheels from Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash and the flex-wheels from Arthur C. Clarke's 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Death's Head Meteor
  More Ideas and Technology by Neil R. Jones
  Tech news articles related to The Death's Head Meteor
  Tech news articles related to works by Neil R. Jones

Spherical Tires-related news articles:
  - Eagle-360 Spherical Wheel Concept

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