Pneumatic pop-up tire-chains

Snow tires, like off-road tires have very pronounced grooves. If one were to produce tires such that an overpressure would cause "chains"(actually a gross metal mesh) to extrude from the bottom of the grooves reaching a maximum extension from the lands of (say) a 1/4", they could stop a car on ice, cold as you're going to get barring tossing an anchor overboard.

Vehicles with airbrakes can use the existing pump/reservoir to power the chains; when the foot is removed from the brake pedal, some air is released from the tire until pressure is back to spec. Cars with hydraulic brakes can be retrofitted with auxiliary air-braking systems which apart from the chain deployment can also ensure constant pressure in the tires as well as a backup in case of hydraulics failure.

Comes in 2 basic flavours: "full-time" which is a heavier chain on a more robust tire, for off-road vehicles, and "switched" which the operator would arm when going off of dry, clear (known good) pavement.

Both types can be operated by the ABS system.