Treading cleverly with tyre tech..

TYRE company Bridgestone is collaborating with Microsoft to develop a world-first monitoring system for detecting tyre damage problems in real-time.

Such issues are said to contribute to 30 per cent of all car accidents caused by technical failure, with four main forms: inadequate pressure, fatigue, irregular wear, and damage from curbs, potholes or items on the road.

Most of these problems can already be reliably mitigated against with tyre pressure monitoring systems being mandatory in all cars built since 2012, while regular servicing and replacing tyres guards against wear and fatigue.

The safety gap has been tyre damage – which often cannot be detected without close, manual inspection, and which can potentially occur at any time.

Bridgestone is closing that gap with its Tyre Damage Monitoring System, which will deliver real-time awareness of damage.

It uses the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform (MCVP) cloud framework together with existing sensor data, from hardware that is already installed, and uses algorithms to detect events affecting the tyre surface and inner layers.

The driver can then be immediately notified of the hazard and act to remedy the situation. There is currently no other equivalent monitoring system available in the market. Alternatives would require extra hardware to be installed.

Bridgestone says the tyre damage monitoring system has other applications as it not only understands when damage has occurred but also where.

Such information allows broader insight into road conditions and infrastructure, which can be used to alert agencies responsible for road damage issues to the presence and location of potholes and other hazards.

Future autonomous vehicles could also be beneficiaries of the system – as vehicles pass information about local hazards to others in the vicinity, as well as cloud data stores.

The new Tyre Damage Monitoring System is available to all vehicle fleets and car suppliers that use MCVP.

European Bridgestone boss Laurent Dartoux said: “Digital is such a huge part of what we do today at Bridgestone – it’s imperative that we work with industry-leading partners who can support our needs today and in the future.

“By teaming up with Microsoft, we have the opportunity to bring our Tyre Damage Monitoring System to millions of drivers, offering them better safety and peace of mind.”