You’re not wrong. These are called twheels and have been around for a couple decades. They were invented by Michelin in 2005 and started being sold commercially

You’re not wrong. These are called twheels and have been around for a couple decades. They were invented by Michelin in 2005 and started being sold commercially in '12. They have uses in controlled low speed environments like warehouses employing forklifts or lawn mowers. But they're Achilles heel in the wild is objects/matter (rocks, dirt, ice, snow) getting stuck in the spines and then they're out of balance and useless at speed. They're also loud at speed. Popular mechanics has been talking about these being "the future" forever. They probably have a twheels article template by now. They aren't the future, they're the present and have limited applications. They do look very cool, which I suspect is why they keep getting write ups.