FAIRLAWN, Ohio (April 23, 2013) — A future in which a sensor imbedded in a tire helps prevent an automobile accident could be just around the corner.
That's the opinion of Saied Taheri, director of the Center for Tire Research at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University — more commonly known as Virginia Tech. Mr. Taheri, an associate professor in the Mechanical Engineer Department at the university, discussed "intelligent tires" in his keynote address April 22 at the ACS Rubber Division's spring technical meeting and education symposium, held at the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn.
Mr. Taheri told the group progress is being made in developing and implementing tire- and vehicle-related sensory systems and control algorithms that will detect changes in pavement condition, traffic patterns, speed and distance from other vehicles. With China and India primed to increase the number of vehicles on the road significantly—China alone is expected to add 500 million to 600 million vehicles by the year 2020—that technology will be important in the interest of drivers' safety.
"We live in an age of Google, Facebook, smart phones," said Mr. Taheri, whose talk was titled, "Tire Research: The Next Chapter."
"These devices let us sleep on our couches and stay connected to the world," he told the symposium audience. "Data will be a critical component of the future."
Before joining Virginia Tech, Mr. Taheri worked at Goodyear from 1998-2007. He also served as an assistant professor at Tehran Polytechnic Institute in Tehran, Iran, and founded two companies that designed and built test equipment for the automotive industry.
He has produced nearly 100 journal and conference papers.
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This report appeared on the website of Rubber & Plastics News, an Akron-based sister publication of Tire Business.