Why survey people when you can draw upon all the wisdom of the internet? Hankook Tire & Technology has turned to artificial intelligence to gain insights into consumer attitudes towards electric vehicles, developing a Voice of Customer (VOC) analysis system based upon ChatGPT for this purpose. The Korean firm collaborated with data cloud computing companies Amazon Web Services and Snowflake to build an integrated VOC data analysis system.
As the June edition of Tyres & Accessories went to press, the UK celebrated the coronation of a new monarch. Tyres & Accessories marked the occasion too, as this special coronation edition demonstrates from its cover celebratory onwards. And, if NTDA HQ’s announcement about taking coronation day off to celebrate, paired with the association’s encouragement that tyre retailers from across the UK should do the same is anything to go by, we certainly weren’t the only ones.
To support the digitalisation of tyre solutions, production processes and business workflows at Continental Tires around the world, the company has assembled a team of IT and related specialists at a new facility in Portugal. This Solution Center is located near the Continental tyre plant in Lousado and employs around 80 people, with plans already in place to double the workforce by 2026.
Hankook Tire’s holding company (Hankook & Company) along with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Snowflake are working on an integrated AI data platform to improve the performance and quality of tyres. According to the company, the digital ecosystem should also help to develop autonomous driving technology, increase efficiency in product development and increase quality through the analysis of manufacturing data.
Capacities at Apollo Tyres Ltd.’s production facilities in Europe were 88 per cent utilised between March and June 2022. The utilisation figure for the tyre maker’s plants in India was around 85 per cent, reports chief financial officer Gaurav Kumar. This gives the company little leeway for further growth in volumes, but Apollo Tyres believes it can address this issue without resorting to a greenfield or brownfield capacity expansion project.
Yokohama Rubber hopes to speed up its tyre development process by implementing new rubber compounding technology that draws upon the power of artificial intelligence (AI). It is turning to a process that utilises AI-based compound generation technology to achieve user-set target property values.
Michelin has purchased road infrastructure computer vision specialist RoadBotics and intends to combine the US-based firm’s expertise with its own know-how to provide a Michelin DDi service aimed at road managers. It will initially offer this service in North America before beginning a rollout in Europe.
Professors from two South Korean universities have collaborated with Nexen Tire to develop a technology that utilises artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict tyre performance. The resulting application employs machine learning technology during the tyre concept design stage to more quickly and precisely anticipate real-world properties such as fuel efficiency, noise and handling characteristics.
Brembo has unveiled an innovation that integrates artificial intelligence-based software its firm’s brake components. It calls this new intelligent braking system Sensify and aims to have it on the market from the start of 2024.
Brake manufacturer Brembo is opening a “Brembo Inspiration Lab” in California’s Silicon Valley (USA) to strengthen the company’s “expertise in software development, data science and artificial intelligence.” The Brembo Inspiration Lab is expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2021. No details of the associated investment have yet been released.
Under extensions to an agreement first signed in 2019, tyre maker Hankook and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) will continue and expand operations at the HK-KAIST Digital Innovation Center, which is located within the Hankook Technodome in Daejeon, Korea.
Automated vehicle inspection company ProovStation is adopting a Michelin technology in order to enhance its artificial intelligence-based car inspection solution. The addition of Michelin QuickScan will enable ProovStation to “check tyre wear automatically and instantaneously with millimetre precision.”
Continental is further expanding its non-tyre activities through the acquisition of a minority stake in German-US start-up Recogni. The investment took place as part of the US$48.9 million Series B financing round announced by Recogni on 17 February. Both companies have agreed not to disclose the amount of the holding.
Yokohama Rubber reports it has developed a system that utilises artificial intelligence to predict the physical properties of rubber compounds, and from this breakthrough that it achieved last December has produced a proprietary system that is already being used to design rubber compounds for Yokohama tyres. The manufacturer expects that the system’s ability to conduct a large number of virtual experiments will accelerate compound development, reduce development costs and lead to the development of better-performing products. In addition, the system will simplify the compound-creation process for less-experienced engineers.
Hankook Tire has released a video that explains its work on pre-emptive road risk detection technology in collaboration with data and technology company SK Planet. The result of this joint effort is the Road Hazard Prediction & Detection Solution.
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BMB-Consult GmbH