Japan-headquartered Toyo Tire (Toyo) have launched a new tyre development system “T-Mode,” that blends conventional automotive tyre design base technologies, such as CAE (computer-aided engineering) and AI (artificial intelligence), into an enhanced simulator. Future tyre development will advance on this new stage through the use of the upgraded system.
Since Toyo’s “T-mode” tyre design base technology was established in 2000, the company has worked continuously to develop the ideal tyres that rapidly achieve performance requirements and functionality shifts to support next-generation mobility.
In the latest “T-Mode” edition, Toyo Tire combined two simulation technologies using supercomputers – “tyre simulation,” which reproduces/employs tyre motion in use for performance prediction and structural analysis; and “driving simulation” which reproduces various car model information, passenger numbers, loads, driving patterns, and other relevant data to assess the impact on tyres from car motion.
While competition for technological advances has begun to dominate the automotive industry with the conversion to EVs and spread of autonomous driving, high-precision and high-speed tyre design will be forefront. Hence, Toyo used SPDM (Simulation Process and Data Management) to incorporate AI design support technologies into the previous T-Mode (proprietary simulation infrastructure technology) to evolve into more advanced tyre development processes with the new “T-Mode.”