Editorial: Dawn of a new era

As the June edition of Tyres & Accessories went to press, the UK celebrated the coronation of a new monarch. Tyres & Accessories marked the occasion too, as this special coronation edition demonstrates from its cover celebratory onwards. And, if NTDA HQ’s announcement about taking coronation day off to celebrate, paired with the association’s encouragement that tyre retailers from across the UK should do the same is anything to go by, we certainly weren’t the only ones.

For many of us, the crowning of a new king is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But as King Charles is enthroned, the tyre industry is also witnessing the dawn of a new era. One that centres, not on the official establishment of a new national figurehead passed down – some might argue – by the most natural progression of inherited birth-right after many generations, but rather a new generation of artificial intelligence.

For months we have heard speculative report after conspiracy theory that artificial intelligence or AI, as it is known, will take all our jobs or take over the world. That kind of thinking has obvious problems. But what if, as has ended up being the case with basically ever stage of technological progress from the invention of the wheel onwards, we look at AI as a tool rather than with fear and suspicion? In our industry, can it become a [tyre] lever towards progress?

Some leading tyremakers certainly think so. This month, Hankook Tire’s holding company (Hankook & Company) along with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Snowflake announced they are working on an integrated AI data platform to improve the performance and quality of tyres. According to the company, the digital ecosystem should also help to develop autonomous driving technology, increase efficiency in product development and increase quality through the analysis of manufacturing data.

Hankook says it wants to “firmly anchor data-based decisions in its corporate culture and increase the company’s value through the optimised availability of data”. The tyre maker also plans to expand digital development processes across the entire value chain by enabling employees to make small innovations in a system-based work environment.

To that end, Hankook & Company is collaborating with AWS and Snowflake to establish an optimised data analysis infrastructure, incorporating cloud-based solutions and platform expertise. (Snowflake, headquartered in Montana, USA, is a cloud-based SaaS software that helps efficiently store, process, and analyse large volumes of data). The project aims to build an integrated data analysis environment using the latest artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. The project will leverage AWS’s data lake environment and analysis infrastructure, including Sagemaker and AutoML, and have Snowflake as a data warehouse to promote cloud migration and digital transformation.

The cloud-based data analysis platform is home to both internal and external data – from Hankook’s research and development, production and quality evaluations as well as from sources such as mobility providers or Voice of Customer (VOC) surveys. The newly built platform is intended to become a tool to enhance tyre performance and quality. It will integrate and analyse data from performance tests and customer feedback for their electric vehicle tyres, the Hankook “iON” series, to improve their performance. In addition, the company will use integrated analysis of vehicle operation data and external data to develop autonomous driving technology.

Hankook & Company also aims to increase the efficiency of new product development and address quality issues through analysis of manufacturing data. The company, collectively and regardless of the locations of its subsidiaries and employees, will be able to utilise an integrated platform to freely access data, identify new business opportunities, achieve strategic goals, and enhance competitiveness through data exchange and technology collaboration with external companies.

But is not just Hankook. Bridgestone said AI is at the heart of its tyre making system back in June 2016. Continental partnered with Oxford University for a study into AI in November 2016. ZC Rubber installed an AI system in July 2017. Goodyear said it applies AI in the realm of “on-demand mobility” in January 2018. And a number of others are working with AI in a variety of other related fields such as tyre inspection.

Whatever tyre development applications arise from the research undertaken by Hankook and other companies, so far there are no indications that AI or associated software such as ChatGPT will grow hands and gain the ability to use a torque wrench – something that is reassuring for the aftermarket (see page 22 onwards) and fleet business alike (see page 38 onwards) both of which rely on a distinctly human touch. In other words, for the time being at least, we cannot escape the ongoing reality that – whatever other new eras are dawning – tyre retailers remain a critical part of the tyre distribution chain.

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