This new technology has the potential to save lives.
Goodyear recently unveiled an exciting new tire technology that has the potential to prevent collisions on wet and icy roads. Known as SightLine, the system employs a sensor attached to the inside of each tire in order to monitor a number of parameters, including the tread depth and the condition of the road surface underneath. This data is then sent to a vehicle’s Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) system, prompting it to engage soon enough to avoid a collision, regardless of the road conditions.
While SightLine isn’t new (Autosphere reported on this technology back in 2021 and again in 2024), the integration with the AEB system is, and is the result of a collaboration between Goodyear and the NTO (The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research).
Better data, safer vehicles
Goodyear argues that while today’s AEB systems function well on dry pavement where tire grip is good, they may not engage the brakes as quickly as they need to when dealing with wet or icy road conditions. That’s where data from SightLine sensors can make a difference. Tires equipped with SightLine would notify the AEB system that road conditions are not ideal, or that the tires are a bit worn, prompting the brakes to engage earlier than they normally would on dry pavement.
In other words, if the tires are a bit worn, and the road is slippery, the Automatic Emergency Braking system would know that, and it would therefore kick in sooner. This earlier reaction would, in theory, give the vehicle more time to come to a complete stop.
“Through the contact patch with the road,” Goodyear explained in a release, “tire intelligence can provide the AEB with deeper insights into actual tire and road conditions to enable smarter, more precise decision-making.”
In fact, wet road testing conducted by Goodyear indicates that an enhanced AEB system, incorporating the company’s SightLine technology, could potentially help mitigate impacts at speeds of up to 80 km/h by engaging the brakes much earlier.
“Our collaboration with Goodyear aims to predict the braking distance of a vehicle in more conditions, like dry and wet asphalt, and trigger the AEB to reduce accidents and ultimately save lives,” explains Martijn Stamm, Marketing Director, Unit Mobility & Built Environment at TNO. “This knowledge is a key enabler for a safe introduction of higher levels of automation.”
OEM adoption
While this innovation sounds promising, we don’t anticipate seeing it on the market anytime soon. Since SightLine has to work with a vehicle’s AEB system, it can’t be added to vehicle as an afterthought. Instead, Goodyear will have to collaborate with automakers so that OEMs can adopt SightLine at the factory level.
Autosphere asked Goodyear representatives which OEMs have already agreed to integrating SightLine with their AEB systems, and according to Werner Happenhofer, Goodyear’s Vice President, Intelligent Mobility Solutions, that stage of the project is still in the works.
“We have ongoing engagements with partners to discuss potential integration scenarios,” Happenhofer said, “and we look forward to working closely with OEM suppliers to integrate SightLine into their AEB systems in the near future.”
So, while SightLine is a promising technology, with the potential to make a big difference in the real world, only time will tell which OEMs will adopt it, and when we’ll see it in our vehicles.