CLERMONT-FERRAND, France—Michelin and French automated vehicle inspection specialist ProovStation have partnered to advance tire data analysis and reduce the time and costs of tire inspection.
ProovStation is an automated drive-through bay which detects and analyzes vehicle damage. The technology employs a range of "high-tech vehicle scanners," assisted by optical technologies to conduct a 360-degree scan of the vehicle in just three seconds, according to ProovStation.
As part of the new partnership, Michelin is providing its road-surface scanner QuickScan technology which was initially designed for truck tires and has now been adapted to car needs.
The scanner can be used to check tire wear "automatically and instantaneously with millimeter precision," Michelin said.
According to Michelin, a typical manual car inspection lasts about 30 minutes, 10 percent of which is dedicated to tire inspection.
The combined ProovStation and Michelin solutions reduce the time to less than a minute for the entire vehicle, including just a few seconds on the tires.
In addition to QuickScan, Michelin said it also is contributing its tire data analysis expertise, which it said is supported by "proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms."