Bridgestone adds driving simulator to enhance tire development

Rome – Bridgestone has invested in a new driver-in-the-loop (DiL) simulator at its EMEA R&D centre based near Rome, to strengthen its tire development process.

The equipment will be used along with the existing virtual tire development capabilities to “fully digitalise” the tire development process, said Bridgestone 4 Feb.

The investment will enable Bridgestone to combine tire and vehicle simulations with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to enable “faster assessment of many more design options.”

With the help of DiL and virtual development technology, Bridgestone said engineers can virtually reproduce tire behaviour, vehicle interaction and response in various conditions.

The data is then combined with subjective input from expert test drivers.

The combined data is then processed by AI to accelerate tire development, increase speed to market and enhance the efficiency of the development processes.

DiL will reduce the volume of both manufactured tires and physical tire testing, with Bridgestone projecting that up to 12,000 experimental tires will be saved every year due to the investment.

The simulator is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2025, with the group expecting to use the technology for the development of up to 50% of OE tires annually.

Bridgestone is currently mainly using the DiL approach to assess dry handling.

The company, however, is working to expand both the tire performance areas it can assess and the market segments it can be applied to.

The investment marks a “major milestone” as Bridgestone aims to build a “comprehensive ecosystem for accurately predicting tire performance,” said Emilio Tiberio, chief technology officer, Bridgestone West.