Take a look at the next vehicle that rolls into one of your bays. If it was manufactured in the past 5-10 years, I’m willing to bet you’ll be able to pick out a sensor or two staring back at you rather quickly. However, there’s a significant gap in this technology when it comes to the tires. Sure, TPMS is certainly prevalent and helpful, but it fails to alert the driver to attributes like tread depth, stiffness, and balance.
To address this issue, Yagil Tzur, vice president of products at Tactile Mobility, says his company is pairing the use of advanced sensors and artificial intelligence with tires to enhance the safety and efficiency of driving experiences.
“Car manufacturers rely on drivers to go and look at the tires to check that they are healthy and in good condition. But we can’t fool ourselves – no one is doing that. Most of the people even don’t know what to check in a tire, and this has become a major issue,” Tzur says. “We must be able to monitor the tires automatically, just as we get an alert from the car if we have an issue with the engine, with the oil, with the exhaust or with the water level. We need to know what is happening with the tires.”
On this episode of What’s Treading with Tire Review, Tzur explains how virtual sensors—software programs that analyze existing vehicle data to generate new insights – can combine data from various vehicle systems, such as wheel speed, steering angle, and engine torque, to monitor tire conditions and other safety-related parameters.
