A vehicle control device including a tire-side device and a vehicle-side device is provided. The tire-side device includes a vibration detection unit that outputs a detection signal corresponding to a magnitude of vibration of a tire, a signal processing unit that generates data representing a friction coefficient between the tire and a road surface by processing the detection signal, and a transmitter that transmits the data. The vehicle-side device includes a receiver that receives the data and a travel control unit that estimates the friction coefficient based on the data, acquires a braking distance of the vehicle based on the friction coefficient, and controls acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle based on the braking distance.

A vehicle control device including a tire-side device and a vehicle-side device is provided. The tire-side device includes a vibration detection unit that outputs a detection signal corresponding to a magnitude of vibration of a tire, a signal processing unit that generates data representing a friction coefficient between the tire and a road surface by processing the detection signal, and a transmitter that transmits the data. The vehicle-side device includes a receiver that receives the data and a travel control unit that estimates the friction coefficient based on the data, acquires a braking distance of the vehicle based on the friction coefficient, and controls acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle based on the braking distance.

A tire assembly includes a tire for mounting on a vehicle, an elastic body disposed on an inner side of the tire, and a power generation body disposed between an inner surface of the tire and the elastic body. The power generation body includes a first member and a second member. The first member has a first insulating film forming a first surface. The second member has a second insulating film forming a second surface that faces the first surface and contacts the first surface. The elastic body biases the power generation body toward the inner surface of the tire.

A tire tread cover for use with a vehicle wheel having a rim, a hub, and an opening between the rim and the hub. In one embodiment, the tire tread cover includes a flexible body and an attachment portion that extends from the body portion. The flexible body has a shape configured to cover a portion of a tire tread. The attachment portion is configured to (a) insert into the opening of the wheel and (b) engage the rim within the opening to hold the flexible body against the portion of the tire tread.

A tire tread cover for use with a vehicle wheel having a rim, a hub, and an opening between the rim and the hub. In one embodiment, the tire tread cover includes a flexible body and an attachment portion that extends from the body portion. The flexible body has a shape configured to cover a portion of a tire tread. The attachment portion is configured to (a) insert into the opening of the wheel and (b) engage the rim within the opening to hold the flexible body against the portion of the tire tread.

A vehicle includes a powerplant, such as an engine, configured to power front and rear wheels, and a controller. The controller is programmed to, brake a first of the front wheels and a first of the rear wheels while powering a second of the front wheels and a second of the rear wheels to warm those tires, and subsequently brake the second front wheel and the second rear wheel while powering the first front wheel and the first rear wheel to warm those tires.

A system and method are provided for estimating and applying vehicle tire traction. Vehicle data (e.g., movement and location-based data) and tire sensor data are collected at a vehicle and transmitted to a remote computing system (e.g., cloud server). A wear status is determined, and traction characteristics determined for at least one tire, based at least on the vehicle data and the determined tire wear status. The predicted tire traction characteristics are transmitted from the remote computing system to an active safety unit associated with the vehicle, or a fleet management system, wherein the recipient is configured to modify vehicle operation settings based on at least the predicted tire traction characteristics. A maximum speed for the vehicle may be defined by the recipient, or a minimum following distance where, e.g., the vehicle is one of multiple vehicles in a defined platoon.

Non-Pneumatic Tire (NPT) has been widely used due to their various advantages. Existing solutions/approaches provide limited flexibility on the overall tire performance and have less stiffness and poor damage performance. Embodiments of the present disclosure provides systems and methods that generate optimized spoke design for non-pneumatic tires. More specifically, the system of the present disclosure can generate optimized topology with customized property/performance outcomes for NPTs. The variety of spoke designs have been created using a computer generative method. The performance of these generative spoke designs has been investigated using a finite element method (FEM) technique, wherein output of the FEM technique is used for training machine learning model(s) that enable selection of optimal spoke design for tire manufacturing.

A snow melting tire assembly for melting snow off of a tire includes a vehicle tire that includes an outer wall, an inner wall and a tread wall that extends between the inner and outer walls. The tread wall has an outer surface that has tread thereon. The inner and outer walls each have an inner perimeter edge that engages a rim. A heating system is mounted on the tire and heats the tire to melt snow off of the tire. The heating system includes an inner liner that is positioned on an interior surface of the outer wall, the inner wall and the tread wall. A plurality of heating elements is positioned in the inner liner such that the heating elements are in thermal communication with the outer, inner and tread walls wherein the outer, inner and tread walls are heated when the heating element is turned on.

A candidate extraction unit (322) executes candidate extraction processing wherein a fixed number of consecutive height data items are extracted from one line of height data using a certain sample point as the starting point, the median for the extracted height data items and the difference therefrom for each extracted height data item are calculated, and sample points with a difference that is at least a height threshold are extracted as singular point candidates. An interpolation unit (323) determines, to be a singular point, a singular point candidate having a number of consecutive repetitions that is less than a width threshold, deletes the height data for the determined singular point, interpolates the deleted height data using height data for sample points which are adjacent to and other than such singular point, and generates shape data for evaluating runout and bulge/dent.