As the world moves rapidly toward utilizing and depending on electric vehicles, last mile services, various modes of Mobility as a Service and ultimately Autonomous Vehicles, information and intelligence from systems and sensors in vehicles becomes increasingly critical to the safety, efficiency and success of these vehicle and transportation initiatives. As they have done for many years, innovators in the automotive industry will utilize advancements in sensors and information / intelligence from vehicle subsystems to develop and improve safety and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to support the realization of these transportation initiatives and eventually, the highest levels of vehicle autonomy.

The significant increase in data from sensors that have been integrated into modern vehicles enables continued development of important safety, efficiency and ADAS capabilities. However, in the sub-system where there is an abundance of data from the wheel / tire interaction with the driving surface, the information available has been limited to tire pressure and derived information from indirect or direct Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS).

Because TPMS and tire mounted sensors utilize a small battery with a limited amount of power, there is an on-going challenge to enable capabilities beyond what’s currently available in TPM systems. Capabilities such as localized compute and processing operations of rich and detailed data, and communication of this information at the speeds that will be necessary for ADAS and higher levels of Autonomous Vehicle capability will require significantly more power than currently available for TPMS and other tire mounted sensors. In addition, there is the challenge to integrate the various component/module capabilities to produce a system that is optimized for accuracy and efficiency.