Autoblog

Sure, they'll say it's for safety, driving on excessively worn tires is dangerous, but something more sinister is afoot. German firm ProContour has developed a tire tread depth measuring system that beams a laser at the wheels of passing vehicles and takes 430 million measurements per second to develop a three-dimensional profile of that tire. Tread depth and pattern are then calculated, and if there's less than .06 inches of tread or the pattern is clearly inappropriate (studded snows in the summer, for example), a citation is automagically issued. While we're admittedly being cynical, the safety aspect of what ProContour has developed is pretty impressive. The ability to scan the tires of vehicles as they pass at speeds in excess of 50 km/h takes some doing, and we've seen horrid things posing as tires, so kudos, but a fine strikes us as a bit hardcore. Of course, financial pain might have a Pavlovian effect and cause those bitten by the Tire Ticket Fairy to keep a closer eye on their tires. It'd be a joke to assume that everyone already inspects their tires for condition and inflation on a regular basis, but that's how it should be, but then, there'd be no business model for ProContour. None of ProContour's big-brother rigs have been installed yet, but the company is shopping it around to local governments eager for yet another way to stick it to the citizens. The safety idea is laudable, but we're skeptical how a challenge to the seemingly infallible computer might go, should the system go all HAL9000 on us. Thanks for the tip, Rod! Video after the jump (in German).

[Source: thenewspaper.com]

We all know that keeping your tires properly inflated will prolong their tread life, help you burn less fuel and increase your safety. But finding a working air hose when you're away from your garage is like trying to find a working clock in an early-80's Buick.

This is probably what led Coda Development, a Czech Republic company, to invent a new self-inflating tire. Sure, self-inflating tires aren't new, they've been around for years on commercial vehicles and even a few passenger vehicles . But most of those systems use compressed air to keep the tires inflated.

Coda's new system uses a peristaltic pump built into the tire to constantly maintain air pressure. You may have seen a peristaltic pump used in hospitals to deliver intravenous drugs to patients. It's basically a spinning wheel pressed against a liquid-filled tube. As the wheel turns, it pushes the tube's contents through one end and pulls more in the other. In our case, your car's wheel is the wheel and your air-filled tire the tube. A valve ensures that your tire's pressure is always constant. Theoretically, the peristaltic pump is much simpler and therefore more reliable than a compressor-based system. It's also potentially lighter, cheaper and doesn't require a power source. Sounds like a darn smart idea to us. Coda plans to display its system at the 2008 SAE World Congress in Detroit on April 14th through the 17th, so we'll see if it makes a splash there with auto industry engineers.

[Source: Coda]

In September, all new cars sold in the U.S. will be required to have tire pressure monitoring systems. But for all those cars built without them, owners must rely either on their trusty gauge, or one of the new valve-stem monitors. If you've been wondering how well these things work, Consumer Reports has an answer for you.

They bought a set of Air Alert Valve Caps for $25 and put 'em to the test. These caps indicate a four pound drop in pressure by lighting up an LED, a pretty good idea.

You can read for yourself all the pros and cons, but the overall verdict was that they worked, but CR was concerned about durability and accuracy due to temperature-related fluctuations in tire pressure.

[Source: Consumer Reports]