Sumitomo Rubber joins smart city project in China

Suzhou, China – Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) has joined a partnership with the local authorities of the Chinese city of Suzhou for a smart city project, featuring intelligent transportation.

As part of the partnership with the Suzhou High-speed Railway new city management committee, SRI will provide tire and tire sensing knowledge and related technologies for demonstration testing of autonomous vehicles.

For the demo project, the Japanese tire & rubber group will also employ its sensorless ‘sensing core’ technology, which analyses wheel speed signals to detect road surface condition and tire status.

In an 11 April statement, SRI said the project will help its objective to further improve sensing core technology and help realise “an accident-free, safe and reliable transportation system.”

In future, SRI intendes to strengthen cooperation with Suzhou City, promote the construction of smart cities in China and explore application of its technologies in other regions.

The Japanese group has been involved in the Suzhou smart city project since last summer: testing the application of "core sensing" in autonomous buses.

Overall, SRI's goal is to facilitate the incorporation of its smart technologies into industry standards for safe driving of driverless vehicles.