Hankook & Co., parent company of Hankook Tire America Corp., is investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) as a future driver of tire design, testing and performance monitoring.
In November 2019, the company unveiled its Virtual Compound Design system, which it called “a predictive model for tire compound properties using artificial intelligence.”
In April 2020, Hankook revealed that it had developed an automatic tire inspection system based on AI technology and digital sensors “to leverage efficiency and consistency at the final stage of product testing.”
“AI technology is here and is being actively adopted in the tire industry,” Hojong Lee, leader of Hankook’s mobility solution development project, recently told MTD.
According to Lee, the manufacturer is “developing an AI algorithm to have a tire identify road conditions and predict tire load and wear-out risks on its own by learning various road conditions and data acquired from sensors through deep-learning methods.
“As the tire analyzes the data, the information will be delivered to the driver inside a vehicle in real-time through in-car displays.
“As of now, Hankook Tire has completed the development of an intelligent tire system concept that recognizes the real-time load, tread wear, and road surface condition,” says Lee.
Information relayed to drivers “will greatly improve control of a vehicle, providing alert for tire abnormality and tire replacement,” he explains.
Sungheen Youn, team manager of Hankook’s design team, says Hankook will launch “an intelligent tire that can estimate load and tread wear” within a year-and-a-half.
