Work continues on 'intelligent tire'

ERJ staff report (RPN)

Fairlawn, Ohio – A future in which a sensor imbedded in a tire helps prevent an automobile accident could be just around the corner, according to Dr. Saied Taheri as reported by Don Detore in Rubber & Plastics News.

Taheri is director of the Center for Tire Research at Virginia Tech University, and an associate professor in the university’s mechanical engineering department. He discussed "intelligent tires" in his keynote address on 22 April at the American Chemical Society’s Rubber Division spring technical meeting and education symposium, held at the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn.

Taheri told the group progress is being made in developing and implementing tire- and vehicle-related sensory systems and control algorithms that will detect changes in pavement condition, traffic patterns, speed and distance from other vehicles. With China and India primed to increase the number of vehicles on the road significantly – China alone is expected to add 500-600 million vehicles by the year 2020 – that technology will be important in the interest of drivers' safety.

"We live in an age of Google, Facebook, smart phones," said Taheri, whose talk was titled "Tire Research: The Next Chapter." "These devices let us sleep on our couches and stay connected to the world. Data will be a critical component of the future."