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New driverless tyre testing

Jan 14, 2019 Continental, road safety, tyres,


Continental has commissioned the first driverless tyre test vehicle for a wide range of road surface types, at the company's test site in Uvalde, Texas, in the U.S.A. The focus of the new testing is to make the test results for Continental's passenger and light truck tires more conclusive and minimise the impact of the test procedure on the results. The vehicle is based on Continental's automated Cruising Chauffeur, developed for freeways.

The test vehicle is controlled using a satellite-based navigation system and is equipped with camera and radar sensors, enabling it to react immediately to people, animals, or other unexpected objects on the track, even without a driver. 

"In critical situations, the tyres' level of technology is the deciding factor in whether a vehicle brakes in time," explains Nikolai Setzer, member of the Continental Executive Board and head of the Tyre division. "With tyre tests which use an automated vehicle, we achieve highly conclusive test results and thereby ensure the premium quality of our tyres."

The company admits that one of the challenging tasks in tyre production is to carry out quality tests while tyres are in use. Newly developed rubber compounds and tyre models have to be tested under real life conditions, showing how well they perform on gravel roads, for example. Driving the test vehicles places huge demands on the drivers, as even the smallest deviations on the test track can have a huge impact on the quality and comparability of the test results.

Thomas Sych, head of Tyre Testing at Continental, explains: "The automated vehicle enables us to reproduce processes precisely, meaning that every tyre in the test experiences exactly the same conditions. This way, we can be sure that differences in the test are actually caused by the tyres and not by the test procedure."

In addition to the significantly improved comparability of the results, the tyre test using automated vehicles will also reduce the maintenance work required for the test tracks. Because the vehicle is sent on a route that varies by just a few centimeters each time, the test track is subjected to less wear and tear, thus requiring considerably less maintenance.

"Thanks to close collaboration with colleagues from many different areas of Continental, we have made a lot of progress with our prototype for the tyre test. Our focus now is on further developing the necessary camera and radar systems for this special case of off-road routes, so that the vehicle can react appropriately when people, animals, or other vehicles unexpectedly appear on the route," explains Sych. "We know from our own research, such as the Continental Mobility Studies, that trust is extremely important for the mobility of the future. We are fully aware of this responsibility when developing these new technologies."

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