Well-known companies add "tire" black technology

Conservatively estimated, global tire consumption should be close to 1.8 billion in 2024. Such a huge sales volume seems to allow tire companies to rest easy?

It's impossible! In fact, as more and more tire companies have production capacity exceeding 50 million, 100 million, and 200 million, the tire market is no longer big enough. In addition to mergers and acquisitions, many tire companies have begun to increase revenue by expanding more travel businesses!

For example, Sumitomo Rubber has begun to showcase its sensing core technology (Sensing Core software) to seek breakthroughs in the field of autonomous driving. At the same time, the Japanese tire manufacturer is using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to make the fleet safer and more efficient.

Sumitomo Rubber Releases Sensing Core Technology

In early January 2025, Sumitomo Rubber held several information conferences on sensing core technology at CES 2025 in Las Vegas.

At the press conference, the senior vice president of technology at Sumitomo Rubber's U.S. subsidiary said: "As autonomous driving technology continues to advance, people's awareness of driving and car maintenance may decrease. By using Sumitomo Rubber's sensing core technology, Sensing Core software, car owners can predict tire failures or even the failure of the entire vehicle."

Sensing Core, a software jointly developed by Sumitomo Rubber and artificial intelligence analysis company Viaduct Co., Ltd., collects vehicle data and uses AI to organize and interpret data in real time. In current practical applications, the software can measure tire wear and damage, load, tire pressure, wheel nut looseness and road conditions.

Sumitomo Rubber's partner Viaduct was born out of a research laboratory at Stanford University in 2019 and created an artificial intelligence model to analyze large amounts of real-time vehicle data.

The application of sensing core technology will help vehicles "drive autonomously" more safely. In order to achieve this goal, Sumitomo Rubber has done a lot of research in the field of autonomous driving technology and continuously improved its sensing core technology so that this technology can process more data than just visible data sources through cameras or lidar.

"Invisible data sources obtained from tire rotation signals are also essential, and Sensing Core fills this demand gap."

It is reported that Sensing Core is Sumitomo Rubber's upgrade to its tire pressure warning system (DWS) over the past 25 years - the system indirectly detects changes in tire pressure without the need to install additional tire pressure monitoring sensors in the tire.

Recently, the president and CEO of Sumitomo Rubber also expressed a brief view on the sensing core technology.

"We believe that our partnership with artificial intelligence technology expert Viaduct will ultimately have a positive impact on the future autonomous mobility society in terms of efficiency and safety. Sensing Core technology uses the rotation signal of the tire, that is, the information already in the brake ECU, and by filtering this information and looking at the changes in it, we can identify changes in the tire adhesion radius, which indicates changes in tire pressure or the law of rotation speed."

The founder and CEO of Viaduct said that the most important aspect of the sensing core technology Sensing Core is that it can understand all information.

"We believe that artificial intelligence will continue to change different industries and drive extreme operational efficiency. One of the core challenges facing artificial intelligence at present is how to improve time series and IoT data more effectively."

Sensing Core Technology, Master of Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement
In addition to launching Sensing Core Technology, Sumitomo Rubber has also strengthened its fleet management services. Currently, in the pilot project, the application of Sensing Core Technology has significantly improved the operational efficiency of the fleet and brought huge returns to the fleet.

Roughly estimated, the software will save up to $2,500 (RMB 18,300) in maintenance costs for each vehicle. Sumitomo Rubber said that the reduction in maintenance costs is due to predictive maintenance alerts, which can identify potential problems before they occur, reduce failures, and thus reduce the trouble of stopping the vehicle due to vehicle failure repairs.

"Optimizing fleet maintenance can avoid insufficient or even excessive maintenance of certain components, thereby improving operational efficiency again. At the same time, the sensing core technology reduces labor costs and empowers service centers and dealers. Through predictive maintenance alerts, dealers will know which problems need to be handled first. The sensing core technology also has a wide range of uses and benefits in parts availability, supply chain optimization, demand planning and demand forecasting."

Five major functions empower tire services

According to reports, the five functions of the sensing core are to monitor tire pressure (DWS), vehicle load, road conditions, tire wear and wheel shedding. Combined, the technology can identify and alert drivers, fleet managers and autonomous operating systems to potential problems.

"Properly inflated tires will increase the full cycle life of tires by normalizing the footprint shape and reducing abnormal wear of tires. At the same time, normal tire pressure can also help drivers maintain load capacity and save money in reducing fuel costs and extending battery life due to tire rolling resistance levels."

The sensing core technology is able to "estimate the entire load distribution at the corner of the vehicle, and then predict potential accidents based on unbalanced load conditions or overload conditions." The software can also track tread wear to remind drivers when they need to replace tires. It can also inform the self-driving car to gradually adjust the handling and braking to help extend the life of the tire. In addition, it can also identify loose lug nuts that may cause the wheel to fall off.

Sensing Core can also evaluate road conditions, even if the camera is blocked when the self-driving car is driving in extreme weather, the self-driving car can still drive stably by judging the road conditions.

"Sumitomo Rubber's Sensing Core technology can identify the grip of the tire on the road surface and allow the vehicle to adjust its handling characteristics according to the grip, or actually modify the route. At the same time, the Sensing Core technology uses this data to communicate with other drivers and create a map of road conditions in an area."

Sumitomo Rubber said that Sensing Core technology is the fourth division of its group business. The first division mainly operates tires under the Falken and Dunlop brands. The other two divisions are the tennis and golf sporting goods division, and the industrial products division, which operates products such as building shock absorbers to help resist the impact of earthquakes.

On January 8, 2025, Sumitomo Rubber announced that it had signed a purchase agreement to acquire the Dunlop trademark and other rights of the Dunlop brand in Europe, North America and Oceania from Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company for US$526 million (RMB 3.856 billion).