Falken’s New Tech Monitors Your Tire’s Wear From the Inside – Roadshow [CNET]

April 8, 2022 Kyle Hyatt technology

miniatureenergyharvester-web-jpeg — These little sensors not only measure a tire’s external wear from the inside, they also generate their own power.

Falken/Sumitomo

Measuring tire wear is generally not a super exact science, or at least not for most drivers. You just have to look at the sheer number of balding, old and unevenly worn tires we see on roads every day. But what if there was a way to do for tire wear what tire pressure monitoring systems did for tire pressure?

There may be soon, Falken announced Monday. The tire brand’s parent company, Sumitomo, along with Hiroshi Tani of Kansai University in Japan, has developed a way to monitor tire wear from inside the tire and power the sensors without needing a replaceable battery.

To monitor tire wear, the system uses sensors placed on the inside of the tire carcass that measure the amplitude and frequency of road vibrations that occur as a tire is rolling. This data is then used to determine if a tire is within its intended specifications or if it’s old and hard, worn past its limits or worn unevenly. That information can then be passed on to the driver.

The sensors that measure wear are also used to generate their own power via the tire’s rotation. They’re called Miniature Energy Harvesters, and there are multiple examples of them in the system. Falken is understandably tight-lipped about how exactly they work, but it does mean that you won’t need to go in and replace a sensor battery or junk a tire because of a dead battery.

Having tires that are adequately inflated and within their working parameters for wear and age is vital for a few reasons. First, old or worn tires don’t grip the road very well, which can lead to a loss of control. Second, unevenly worn tires can affect vehicle fuel economy and therefore emissions. Lastly, if a tire’s contact patch can be optimized for grip, it’s possible to design a lighter, more efficient tire, which would benefit grip and efficiency. It’s all a big win.

It’s unclear when we could expect to see this technology on a production tire, but I wouldn’t hold off swapping your worn-out Falken Azenis’ on your Miata in hopes that it’ll be coming soon.