"Real time measurement of wear and damage in tyres to reduce accidents and enable the ""tyre as a service"" model"

ended

Several studies highlight how tyres failure or excessive wear is a critical aspect in accidents and avoiding vehicles circulating with inadequate tyres could reduce the probability of accidents of 28.5%, (56% on snow and up to 84% on wet roads). Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) mandatory in new cars since 2014 only measure pressure and temperature of tyres, while the tyre industry is looking for real time monitoring of wearing status to be integrated in new intelligent tyres, enabling innovative “tyre as a service” business model or preventive maintenance. Wriggle has developed a solution capable of: i) measuring in real time the tread depth of tyres and monitor the extent of wear; ii) identifying possible damages and deformations of tyres that precede sudden failures or explosions, exploiting the physical principle of variation of electrical conductivity related to the tread thickness, without integrating any digital device in the polymeric mixture of the tyre, as currently targeted by competing solutions under development. The system can be easily installed into new vehicles by OEM or integrated into any type of existing vehicles using an ad-hoc or existing BlackBox system for after-market. Wriggle aims at licensing the commercialization of SMART-Tyre to a tyre manufacturer and licensing production of receiver to TPMS manufacturer. Considering a penetration in 5 years of 6% of available market of new light vehicles and 12% of heavy vehicles in EU and US only, Wriggle would reach in 2025 revenues of 13.6 M€ and EBIT of 8.7 M€. Wriggle targets to carry out product-fit, validate technical and cost/price assumptions, validate business model and reach MoU with one tyre manufacturer and one TPMS manufacturer for future co-development and validation to be carried out during the phase 2 to certify the SMART Tyre and demonstrate the application in long-term testing in real cases.