Conductive rubbers and micro-compressors to feature in tomorrow’s tyres

A vehicle’s ability to check its own health will only grow in importance as further autonomy is introduced in fleets, particularly as OEMs scramble to introduce features such as predictive maintenance. But a machine is only as smart as its sensors, and certain components are trickier to monitor than others.

Tyres are a good example, and suppliers like Continental are now working to overcome this and better serve trends such as automation. One concept is ContiSense, which Christoph Berger, Development Engineer for Innovative Tire Solutions at Continental, describes as the electrification of the tyre. As he explains, transmitting data from a tyre to a vehicle is not a problem, as pre-existing tyre monitoring systems already offer a stable, wireless connection. The challenge comes in generating the data.