Car makers track tire-sensor R&D

Brussels - Tire sensor technology is ranking very high on the list of R&D priorities for most vehicle manufacturers, said Tom De Vleesschauwer, director automotive long-term planning & sustainability at IHS Automotive.

“We are seeing so much activity around tire sensors,” De Vleesschauwer reported at ERJ’s recent Future Tire 2014 conference in Brussels. “Some tires already have embedded sensors and likely this is going to increase in the future.”

Developments of interest in this area include technologies for monitoring tread-depth and heat build-up, according to the IHS expert.

Car-makers, he said, were also interested in sensors that provided the ability to predict tire failure, rather than reporting after damage had been done.

In future, he continued, tire sensor data could also be "shared with a preferred garage or service-centre and potentially be used to tailor client-specific service plans".