Tire maker Falken has developed technology to detect loose lug nuts and the company plans to roll it out on a production vehicle later this year.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries announced the new Sensing Core feature, which the company says can detect loose nuts within just one millimeter, without the use of dedicated sensors. Instead, the Sensing Core relies on data from a vehicle’s controlled area network (CAN), analyzing wheel speeds and other factors.
This feature will debut as standard equipment on a car from an unnamed automaker this year, Sumitomo said, adding that the company is in talks with other automakers. The market where the loose nut detection feature will launch has not been discussed, so it is unclear whether it will be available in the US
Accidents caused by loose lug nuts have become a growing concern in Sumitomo’s home market of Japan, the company said, especially ahead of the colder months when drivers switch to winter tires. Although commercial vehicles often have clips to provide visual confirmation that lug nuts are properly tightened, this is not a foolproof method, says Sumitomo. And passenger cars usually don’t have them.
Sumitomo claims that Sensing Core technology is independent of tire make, model and size, allowing it to be used with a variety of vehicle and tire combinations. The same basic technology can also be used for other applications. Sumitomo also used the same basic technology for an indirect tire pressure monitoring system that the company says is employed by 15 vehicle manufacturers in the European, Japanese, Chinese and Indian markets.
Another possible application is tire wear monitoring. This would involve sending vehicle data to a cloud to predict tire wear based on the amount of use. At the CES 2024Sumitomo has announced an investment in vehicle analytics software company Viaduct, with the aim of integrating the latter’s software with Sensing Core for this purpose.