In motorsport and automotive engineering, the pursuit of improvements and efficiencies is relentless. Every element is scrutinized for its potential to deliver an edge. Tire intelligence, once limited simply to pressure and temperature analysis, has become central to this quest, evolving rapidly as new technologies emerge and old assumptions are challenged.Among these innovations, Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) has developed Sensing Core, a non-invasive, clever approach to monitoring tire parameters. Its journey from passenger vehicles to the harsh habitat of endurance racing offers a glimpse into how simple but effective innovations can deliver significant opportunities for manufacturers and race teams alike.
Sensing Core’s unique advantage comes in the form of its multi-faceted measurement approach. It measures vibrations, changes in the dynamic radius, and other signals, such as yaw rate and engine and brake data, without requiring additional hardware. Based on this, Sensing Core intelligently interprets pressure, grip and wear. What sets sensing Core apart is its simple logic.Traditional tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) monitor each wheel in isolation, triggering alerts only when a predefined threshold is crossed. Sensing Core, by contrast, analyses trends across all four wheels, detecting anomalies that would or else go unnoticed. A conventional system sees wheels as individuals, leaving the driver or team to interpret. sensing Core’s algorithms, however, recognize outliers and anomalies across the set and can alert the team independently before a problem escalates.
The system’s algorithms, rooted in the interpretation of physics-based data taken from the vehicle, run on embedded hardware supplied to car and brake manufacturers. This approach opens up advanced tire intelligence to millions of vehicles worldwide. Over 56 million cars have already been equipped with Sensing Core’s indirect tire pressure monitoring system, and new features like tire wear, grip, load and loose wheel detection are being rolled out.
While Sensing Core has been well proven on the road, 2025 saw the technology’s on-track debut and, with it, a brand-new set of challenges. On the racetrack, tires are exposed to many temperature and pressure changes due to curbs and high speeds.At the Nürburgring, these conditions may change dramatically as code 60 phases (a localized slow zone used on the Nürburgring) come into effect. These circumstances,where extreme variability can easily catch traditional TPMS sensors off guard,are where the multiphase approach of Sensing Core comes into its own. Traditional sensors require the input of a warning threshold, and if the threshold is ever understepped in terms of pressure, the system triggers an alert. Sensing Core’s ability to compare all four tires simultaneously enables the software to intelligently distinguish between a single blowout and a non-hazardous circumstance that affects all tires simultaneously.
Sensing Core’s racing debut took place during the 2025 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS), on board both of Falken Motorsports‘ Porsche 911 GT3 Rs. Contributing to Falken’s most successful season at the circuit yet, the Falken Porsches ran an early version of the software in the opening rounds, before the full version was rolled out in time for the jew
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