Fri June 26 02:00 pm 2020 in categories Product news, Company news
Smart tires are coming – how consumers will benefit from sensor technology
Self-driving cars also set requirements for tires. Sensors connected to tires will be one of the things that play an important role when machines observe driving conditions instead of humans. An expert from Nokian Tyres believes that smart tires will be commonplace within five years at the latest.
The automatization of traffic is advancing, which also sets new requirements for car tires. When a car is not human-controlled, it must be able to individually observe driving conditions via sensors installed on tires, for example. The old and familiar safety characteristics, such as grip on ice and aquaplaning resistance, will be joined by technology that produces real-time data.
– If a car does not have an active driver to ensure that the tires are safe to use, safety needs to be measured in another way, says Mika Penttilä, Head of Digital Technology for Nokian Tyres.
When the information that is received from tires is combined with weather data, for example, the vehicle’s on-board information system can form a picture of the prevailing driving conditions and adjust the driving accordingly. The tire sensors can also monitor tire wear, inflation pressure, and the temperature inside the tire. An increase in the inside temperature may be an early indication of tire damage, for example, allowing it to be addressed before it causes a dangerous situation on the road.
– No matter how smart your car is, tires are the only link between the car and the road, says Jukka Kasi, Senior Vice President of Products & Marketing for Nokian Tyres.
The tire will tell you when it needs to be replaced
Smart tires also enable new tire-related service models that can be utilized even before we ever see robotic cars on the streets.
– In the future, tires will still continue to wear down and require replacement. However, purchasing a new tire set may become more effortless and unnoticeable than before, Penttilä says.
Future refrigerators can order new milk when you are running out, and the same can happen with worn tires. As your tires wear down, sensors can notify the tire shop, which can then deliver a new set to you or even fit them on your vehicle. According to Jukka Kasi, however, the first step is to notify the driver of tire wear.
– The tire can relay the wear data to the onboard information system, which notifies the driver that the tires can be safely used for another three months. At the same time, the system instructs them to contact the nearest tire retailer and provides their contact information. This is similar to how current cars can notify the driver that they are running out of fuel and provide navigation guidance to the nearest service station.
Preventive maintenance becomes especially important as the popularity of shared-use vehicles increases – and especially once they start operating autonomously. This ensures that the riders will not be stranded.
Smart tires will appear before robotic cars
Even though the major revolution is still in the works, different sensor and smart tire solutions are already available. TPMS tire pressure sensors are already well-known to consumers, for example, but more advanced technology has so far been reserved for professional use. For instance, Nokian Tyres Intuitu is a concept for agriculture and contracting tires that combines tires with embedded sensors and a mobile app for data collection.
However, Jukka Kasi believes that solutions like Intuitu will become commonplace in consumer use – even before we ever see autonomous vehicles on the roads.
– Smart tires will first become common on electric vehicles, since they have large tires and lots of sensors and links to the tires. This will happen in about five years, Kasi summarizes.
Read more:
Autonomous driving: The world’s first all-weather robot bus runs on Nokian Hakkapeliittas
Drivers want tires that suit the weather
Further information:
Zuzana Seidl, PR Manager Nokian Tyres CE, 00420 603 578 866, [email protected]