Mando Hella Electronics on Wednesday introduced its smart tire monitoring sensor (STMS) that it was developing for autonomous vehicles.
Mando Hella Electronics executive director Kim Wan-il said at an online event that the sensor will increase safety during driving compared to the previous tire pressure monitoring system.
STMS can detect air pressure of the tires, how worn the tires were and the condition of road surfaces, Kim said.
Most accidents involving autonomous vehicles like those suffered by Tesla and BMW, which currently offers Level 2 autonomous driving, were due to malfunctioning sensors or over reliance on advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), Kim said.
Advanced sensors were needed to upgrade ADAS, the executive director said.
Cameras, radars and ultrasound sensors were being used for autonomous driving. But Kim said cameras is vulnerable to weather changes, radars have limits on identifying objects and ultrasound had a short range.
For safer autonomous driving, more diverse sensor technologies needed to be applied.
STMS was developed in this vain, Kim added.
Japan’s Bridgestone and Italy’s Pirelli are also developing their own STMS technologies. Bridgestone’s incorporates GPS to record the time and place when a tire is damaged. Pirelli’s use 5G network to share the condition of road surfaces in real time.
Mando Hella Electronics was collaborating with Ewha Womans University to conduct design research on the power occurring within the tires, Kim said.
The result of the research will help with driving safety, efficient car management and reduction in carbon emission rates, he added.
