Tire Grip
Indicator

Increasing driver awareness. And enabling autonomy while we’re at it.

Here’s a fact: awareness changes driver behavior. On dry asphalt, for instance, most drivers tend to drive more dynamically than on gravel, knowing that the tire grip is better. However, when that dry asphalt road suddenly and unexpectedly becomes slippery, the driver may not be aware – until going too fast.

Had the driver known, he would of course have adopted his driving style accordingly. The solution? Tire Grip Indicator, TGI by NIRA. A software solution, TGI by NIRA requires no additional sensors. Continuously monitoring the friction between the tire and the road by analyzing the wheel speed signals and other automotive grade sensors, TGI provides accurate friction values, taking both road and tire properties into account. TGI is especially innovative as it works even under normal defensive driving conditions when slip control functions such as the ABS, traction control or ESC are still far from becoming active. Although TGI could well be integrated with advanced vehicle systems such as Automatic Emergency Braking or Adaptive Cruise Control, at the core it’s a true driver awareness device. That’s not to say the driver has to be a person. In fact, solving what is widely considered to be a key issue when it comes to autonomous driving – that’s tire grip prediction – TGI is a real enabler for the self-driving cars of the future. And it’s ready for series implementation today.

Having driven “to the moon and back” – twenty times – from the desert heat of Death Valley to the blistering cold of northern Sweden, using more than 6000 different tire sets, we’ve learnt a thing or two about road friction. With Tire Grip Indicator, all that experience will be yours – in a cost efficient, easy-to-implement software solution.

TGI estimates the friction between the tire and the road under normal driving conditions – long before ABS, ESC or traction control are activated. This means that the tire grip is monitored at all times.

TGI is able to accurately estimate the total available fric- tion by using only a part of the friction potential – thus being able to foresee the available friction before a critical situation occurs.

The grip indicator – in less than a minute

A high-performance software solution, Tire Grip Indicator detects monitors the slip of the road surface continously. Here’s how it works.