New Technologies Make ID Tags on Tires Feasible

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the United States has found that with the advent of new technologies, it is now possible for new tires to have ID tags in the form of electronic tire identification data. The agency did however note that this will call for additional effort from the tire industry and possible regulatory action so that all tire manufacturers use a single type of technology and standard information format.

The NHTSB had included these findings in a report to Congress titled “Electronic Tire Identification Study”. The study was based on data that was gathered over the past three-plus years.

The study mainly identified two technologies which can be used for electronic tire identification—RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and 2D barcodes. Either or both of these technologies could be used to implement electronic Tire Identification Number information on all new tires. It is already mandatory for all tires sold in the UAE to have RFID tags.

Both the RFID and 2D technologies have advantages and disadvantages according to the executive summary of the NHTSA’s study. NHTSA plans to thoroughly study both the technologies in order to determine whether either or both should be used in tire IDs. The organization was also unable to determine the long-term durability of these technologies. According to the study, the most efficient way to provide tire identification would be to include the TIN in the electronic identification tag.

“Current electronic identification technologies do not follow the same format,” it said. “However, if the use of multiple identification technologies is desired as opposed to focusing on a single technology, it is believed that a consistent format could be achieved by modifying the content format for one of the technologies to match that of the other.”