(EXCLUSIVE) Goodyear Testing Self-Inflating Tires

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is moving on to the next phase of testing a new piece of technology that is capable of automatically inflating tires.

Multiple U.S. and Canada-based trucking fleets will be testing Goodyear's Air Maintenance Technology over the next 18 months, which was designed to monitor tire pressure to keep it at an appropriate level, according to a company release.

The system uses an automatic pumping device that is housed inside the tire and the truck fleets will test it in their normal daily operations. The company says that tire-related costs are the largest maintenance item for commercial vehicle fleet operators, which explains why Goodyear wants to become involved in the segment.

The AMT system for commercial tires is being created to work under a number of different conditions and through multiple "retreads," according to the Goodyear release.

Goodyear Project Manager John Kotanides, Jr. was able to tell us how long the tires could last compared to current tires sold by the company.

"Properly inflated tires are less susceptible to heat build-up issues and allow for the potential mileage of the tire to be achieved," Kotanides said. "The Technology and Maintenance Council states that 10% under inflation will shorten tread life by 9-16 percent."

He added that most tire pressure monitoring systems "do not warn the driver unless the tire is 25 percent under-inflated."

A $1.5 million grant has been provided by the DOE's Office of Vehicle Technology in order to assist in the research and development of the AMT system for commercial vehicle tires. The tires should also aid in fuel savings and carbon dioxide reductions.

"The rule-of-thumb regarding fuel economy (FE) and inflation is for every 10 psi loss in inflation, a 1% loss in MPG (FE) results," said Kotanides. "Annual CO2 savings due to proper tire inflation Annual CO2 savings from proper tire inflation could approach 5.75 teragrams (TG)."

No release date has been annouced by the company yet, as development efforts are "ongoing" according to Kotanides.

"The development efforts, including commercial fleet testing, for this technology are ongoing," he said. "Therefore, we have not yet determined when AMT will be launched in the marketplace."