Cars, TVs, phones–even fridges can be smart these days. So it’s no surprise that “smart tires” are finally becoming a reality.
WHAT ARE SMART TIRES?
Smart tires incorporate technology to transmit real-time data to your vehicle or an app, allowing for a number of excellent benefits, including:
Enhanced safety
Performance adjustment
Timely maintenance and repair
Accident or damage prevention
When we say “smart tires” we DON’T mean:
Of course, modern tires are “smart” compared to the simple rubber hoops of the 19th century. A Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) is standard for all vehicles built post 2007. This system alerts you when your tires are 25% below their recommended tire pressure. However, it is limited in that it can’t tell you any other info, such as when you’re above the recommended pressure rating or what caused the air loss.
Although tire manufacturers don’t all agree on what tech should be included, they all aim to improve driving experience, increase safety, and deliver valuable data that can be used to design better tires in the future.
Smart tires have exciting potential to assist in a variety of applications, including:
Passenger vehicles
Commercial and fleet vehicles
Construction, industry, and agriculture
GOODYEAR SMART TIRES
In 2021, Goodyear launched sensor-equipped tires under their new brand, SightLine. It includes a suite of tire intelligence technologies to identify and monitor issues before they become problems. They detect conditions in real time, such as treadwear and tire pressure.
Currently, the SightLine technology can stop a vehicle prior to a collision, even on wet or icy driving surfaces. It works in collaboration with your vehicle’s AEB system (Automatic Emergency Braking) by providing insights to your vehicle about road and tire conditions.
Called “predictive maintenance technology,” this tech uses cloud-based algorithms that fleet operators can communicate with in real time, greatly aiding in typical fleet transport issues such as flats and accidents. It’s definitely a huge step up from your typical TPMS system.
The three main categories of capability of SightLine tires are:
Monitoring health
Predicting safety
Enhancing performance
SightLine tires need to be paired with an AEB system that can support its capability, so there is currently a limited number of tire models available.
Discount Tire does not currently stock tires with the SightLine technology but we expect to in the future!
SHOP ALL GOODYEAR TIRESPIRELLI SMART TIRES
Italian performance based tire manufacturer Pirelli also is dipping their toes into smart tires. They claim, “Cyber™ Tyre is the first system based on sensorized tyres in the world to gather vital data and communicate this in real-time to the car.”
Using tiny battery powered sensors placed within the inner tread of each tire, your vehicle will receive data such as tire pressure, temperature, wear, and road conditions. Partnering with Bosch Engineering, the Cyber™ Tyre seems to differ from Goodyear’s SightLine in that it will directly influence your vehicle’s systems, including traction control, power delivery, ABS, EPS, you name it. Data is transmitted via Bluetooth to an electronic control and processed by Pirelli’s proprietary algorithm, allowing drivers to view real-time tire status.
Pirelli exclaims its “The first tyre in the world that talks to your car,” and is always enabled, automatically operating to report to you about the state of the road and your tires.
These sensors will be available with future Aston Martin models. Tires with this tech are distinguished with a “C” on their sidewalls.
Pirelli is currently working with other auto makers, including Jaguar Land Rover, for more sustainable tires that will be constructed from more than 70% renewable and recycled materials.
Excitingly, Pirelli claims that future iterations will be able to recharge themselves and include 5G for smooth capability between car and roadside infrastructure.
Discount Tire does not currently stock Pirelli Cyber™ Tires but will as soon as possible!
SHOP ALL PIRELLI TIRESFLEET & COMMERCIAL SMART TIRES
Fleet vehicles such as large trucks and delivery vehicles have been using smart sensors for some time already. With an increasing push for better, faster route efficiency, the transport and delivery industry requires constant data to help moderate costs. Tire replacement is key to this goal.
Goodyear’s SightLine tires are primarily fixed for fleet use, at least at first. This technology will make generating fleet health reports a breeze with rapidly updated health sheets and repair warnings at a fleet manager’s fingertips.
Normally, a flat tire or required repair can significantly set back a schedule, costing time and money. This new tech, however, should allow for better reaction and prevention to avoid costly issues.
Smart tire technology also has the benefit of helping tires last longer (because they’re better maintained), reducing the need to repair or replace so frequently.
Check out Discount Tire’s fleet program!
FLEET PROGRAMSMART TIRES FOR CONSTRUCTION, INDUSTRY & AGRICULTURE
Construction and agricultural equipment is typically large, expensive, and extremely important for our society’s infrastructure. These big machines need big tires that work well, efficiently, and constantly.
These machines and their parts are quite expensive. A 14 foot mining truck’s tires can cost $50,000 each. Average farm tractor tires can range from $1,000-3,000 with that lower end being a steal. The price can be much higher, too.
Smart tires offer valuable data not only to tire manufacturers about what works best in each industry’s vehicles, but also deliver invaluable information that greatly assists with vehicle and operational management, including maintenance, repair, and scheduling.
WHERE IS TIRE DATA GOING?
Many consumers are understandably nervous about data privacy. Tire buyers want to know where their tire’s data is going and who is using it.
Three major groups are utilizing tire performance data:
Drivers
Tire and auto manufacturers
NASCAR
Most drivers probably haven’t realized they use tire-sourced data all the time to make decisions about their vehicle and their commute. TPMS systems and tire wear indicators are some examples.
When it comes to a product that must perform, customer data is invaluable for manufacturers and retailers. This data allows them to know how their customers are using the tire, how well their tires are performing, and what could be improved.
NASCAR has been using RFID tracking chips in their tires for years to track data such as tread life and performance. This helps contribute to better driver safety and vehicle/tire performance during races.
Considering the sheer number of tires required for motorsports, it’s a prime source for tire data. Understandably, NASCAR is constantly testing tires and we frequently encounter innovations and designs from the track on the street, especially in performance tires.
Mike Martini, president of the U.S. and Canada Consumer Tire Sales Divisions at Bridgestone notes in the Detroit Free Press that:
“Racing is the ultimate proving ground for our tire technologies, and it helps our company develop and test improvements to the fundamentals we use to build our tires for everyday driving.”
Racing is the most extreme form of driving so it follows that data collected in that capacity can apply to daily driving tires, ensuring they’re well within safety and performance limits.
IS THIS AN INVASION OF PRIVACY?
In short: not really.
Chips have been implanted in tires since the early 90s with Goodyear looking into RFID technology as far back as 1984. But these chips are for non-nefarious purposes – mainly inventory and were not tied to drivers themselves.
Tires look largely alike so it can be difficult to locate a specific tire in a warehouse. RFID chips are utilized to keep inventory orderly and do not transmit to any other authority besides the manufacturer or retailer.
On Discount Tire’s end, Product & Quality Manager Josh Sortor says:
“Typically, the sensors in tires just have an ID associated with them and those IDs are “paired” to the vehicle. To my knowledge, there has been no customer information saved on those devices.”
Pirelli and Goodyear have not indicated that any personal information (such as name, GPS location, etc.,) outside of vehicle and tire performance will be stored with their smart tire technologies.
The data collected by these smart tire technologies allows for important safety enhancements to benefit all drivers, such as blow-out warnings. One day, our tires may even be able to reach out to nearby repair service shops for us.
THE FUTURE OF SMART TIRES
Like most technology, you can expect that smart tires will cost a pretty penny initially. Likely, many will not be available to the passenger tire market for a while as tire manufacturers will focus on commercial applications first. Once it becomes cheaper to produce and source, smart tires will then become more visible in ordinary tire stores across the world.
As to when you can expect to be able to “see” these tires on the roads, it’ll probably be some time before they become a regular fact of road life. Nokian Tyres believes that these tires will become common in five years, at latest (due to the rise in smart, autonomous vehicles and auto–pilot systems.)
The head of Digital Technology for Nokian says:
“If a car does not have an active driver to ensure the tires are safe to use, safety needs to be measured in another way.”
Smart tires could be a significant tool in transitioning between driver and autonomous vehicles.
DISCOUNT TIRE
Discount Tire does not currently stock any smart tires. However, we’re excited at the prospect of tires that help drivers stay safe and improve their driving experience. You can guarantee that Discount Tire will offer smart tires when they become an integral component of a vehicle’s safety system. Until then, we’ll continue to service traditional tires that provide superb performance and experience at excellent prices.
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