Michelin makes tyres intelligent
When we think of modern cars, e-mobility, screens, apps and assistance systems come to mind. Hardly anyone thinks of tyres. Yet they are the only connection to the road, and are therefore largely responsible for driving and road safety. This is exactly where Michelin comes in: the mobility company is making tyres intelligent – for greater reliability, lower costs and less tyre waste.
Drivers occasionally look at the tread, rely on how the car feels when driving, or wait until the workshop recommends a change. This often leads to tyres being changed too early (according to internal studies by Michelin, only 14 percent of tyres actually reach the end of their service life): this costs money and places a burden on the environment. Changing them too late, on the other hand, comes at the expense of road safety. Michelin wants to change this. The tyre manufacturer has developed a technology that truly enables the tyre to speak for the first time.
Hello digital twin
The solution from Michelin is called “Embedded Tire Digital Twin”, a digital representation of the tyre. To create this, software records high-frequency vehicle signals that modern cars constantly generate. These include, for example, the load on the tyre, how hard the vehicle is braked, cornering behaviour, uneven road surfaces or driving style. This creates a clear picture of the tyre’s condition under real driving conditions, allowing conclusions to be drawn about tyre load, wear and service-life prognosis. The whole system works purely via software; additional sensors in the tyre are not necessary. With this, Michelin is taking the next step and turning the tyre – until now a passive part that simply rolls along – into an active, thinking component of the software-defined vehicle.
Sensorless tyre intelligence
One component of Michelin’s software solution is SmartWear. The programme continuously monitors how much the tyre tread is wearing down – on each individual wheel, with accuracy to less than one millimetre. This provides not only an up-to-date overview of the tyre condition, but also a forecast of when the right time will be for a tyre change. The system works with tyres of all brands and automatically detects when new tyres have been fitted.
Michelin SmartLoad, on the other hand, provides real-time insights into the vehicle’s actual load and checks whether the tyre pressure is correctly adjusted to the weight. In this way, drivers avoid dangerous overloading, protect their tyres from excessive wear and at the same time reduce fuel or energy consumption.
Intelligent tyres thus recognise when their condition changes – and the vehicle can report this change via a display. This makes it visible when one tyre is wearing faster than the others, when the tread depth becomes critical, or when the current load is too high for the fitted tyres and the selected tyre pressure. In this way, a warning is issued before the situation becomes dangerous. This is particularly important on wet roads, in bends or during emergency braking. The digital twin thus allows the vehicle to adapt the driver assistance systems to the tyre condition.
The tyre becomes a thinking companion
With its intelligent tyre solutions, Michelin gives a previously “silent” companion a voice. The tyre is developing into a thinking companion that helps to increase road safety, reduce costs and conserve resources – fundamentally changing the role of the tyre in the age of the software-defined car.