Technology: Sumitomo preparing for fully-automated driving

Maebashi, Japan – Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. (SRI) has started a joint research project with the aim of developing tire-related services for ‘level 4’ fully-automated vehicles in Japan.

The partnership is with Gunma University Centre of Research on Adoption of NextGen Transportation Systems (CRANTS), which is working on self-driving vehicles in collaboration with the Japanese private sector.

Sumitomo expects to use output from the research in developing intelligent tires and establishing tire services with digital technology, the company said 8 May.

The project falls within Sumitomo’s ‘smart tyre concept’, which the company has been developing to address current changes in the automotive industry.

The study will involve using sensors to observe air pressure and temperature of rolling tire and react for tire maintenances when needed.

Upon identifying “an abnormal condition”, the sensor provides the information required for action-judgement to CRANTS’s automated driving control centre.

“With this technology, we aim to provide safety tire service for level 4 and create fully automated driving society,” said the Japanese tire & rubber company.

Opened last June, CRANTS is a research centre geared for testing and development of self-driving vehicles.

The institute, in collaboration with the private sector, and aims to make all cars self-driving in limited communities by around 2020.