Nokians SnapSkan Service Reveals Lapses in Tire Safety

Nokian Tyres had recently launched its ground-breaking digital tire checking service, SnapSkan. The checks performed by the SnapSkan service throughout the summer in the largest Finnish cities revealed that up to 13 percent of the cars examined had poor summer tires. When there is heavy rain, it is very
The SnapSkan service makes it possible for motorists to get a realistic look at the condition of the tires on their vehicle and the effect it can have on their safety. The service measures the tread depth of the tires using a drive-over scanner which is located either at the entry or the exit of a public parking garage. This information is then sent to the driver’s smart device, free of charge. Hence, there is no extra time or expense related to tire checking and monitoring when motorists use the SnapSkan service. In the periof from June to August, a total of almost 200,000 cars was scanned. From all the tires scanned in the three month period, up to 13 percent had a dangerously low tire tread depth.

Tread depth plays a key role in the wet grip that a summer tire has. The deeper the tread of the tire, the greater its capacity to store water from between the road and the tire, thus increasing the grip on the wet surface. While a new tire has a tread depth of about 8 mm, once the tread depth is down to 4 mm, its aquaplaning resistance reduces significantly. When the tires are in poor condition, the braking distance also greatly decreases. During tests, a tire with a 7 mm tread stopped the car after 25 m, but in the case of a tire with 2 mm tread, the braking distance increased to almost 38 m, a difference greater than two car lengths. This can make a lot of difference in terms of road safety, as you might need to sop suddenly to avoid a collision.

SnapSkan’s results also showed that many drivers used winter tires even in summer. About 4 percent of the cars examined during the three month period had winter tires. Using winter tires in the summer is dangerous as their characteristics are not optimized for summer conditions. Winter tires are meant to be used on snowy and icy roads and their wet grip properties are considerably lower compared to summer tyres. This makes a big difference when braking on a wet surface.

When tested at a speed of 80 km/h, a Nordic non-studded winter tire stopped after 39.2 m, whereas the figure was just 25.4 m with a good summer tire. Such a difference can also be quite crucial in terms of minimizing the impact of an accident. When the weather is hot and dusty, summer tires offer far better handling and driving comfort when compared to winter tires.

The SnapSkan tests revealed that though tires play a very important role as safety equipment on a car, many people neglect making regular checks on the condition of their tires.
Nokian Tyres developed SnapSkan to improve road safety and installed SnapSkan service points in parking garages in the largest Finnish residential areas as well as at tire and car service chain Vianor’s stores. The company opened the first service point outside of Finland in Oslo, Norway.
SnapSkan is the world’s first tire scanning service that is fully automatic and available at a public location to everyone. The goal for SnapSkan is to improve road safety globally for millions of people in the future.