AUTRI receives $1.9 million to study smart tire technology for highway safety
Published: Feb 23, 2026 1:30 PM
By Dustin Duncan
From left, David Bevly, Laurence Rilett and Shiwen Mao are leading a $1.9 million Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration–funded project at Auburn University to test RFID-enabled smart tire technology aimed at improving highway safety.
Heavy commercial trucks are involved in about 13% of all fatal crashes on U.S. roads, according to federal safety data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. And here’s the surprising part: they make up only about 5% of all registered vehicles. In other words, their share of deadly crashes is far higher than you’d expect based on how many are on the road.
One visible and persistent contributor to that risk is tire failure. Anyone who drives regularly on interstates has seen the evidence: large chunks of shredded tire lining road shoulders and medians. While not all tire failures result in crashes, federal studies have identified tire-related problems as contributing to roughly 6% of truck crashes involving critical vehicle failures. Tire blowouts can also scatter debris across travel lanes, increasing the risk of secondary crashes, increasing the probability of damage to other vehicles using the roadway, and creating significant cleanup costs for states.
Auburn University’s Transportation Research Institute (AUTRI) has received $1.9 million from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to explore whether new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can help spot dangerous tire conditions before a blowout happens. Over the next two years, AUTRI researchers will test small, battery‑free sensors embedded in commercial truck tires to determine whether they can reliably detect unsafe conditions early enough to prevent failure.
FMCSA funded the project through its High Priority–Commercial Motor Vehicle program, which focuses on reducing crashes involving large trucks and buses.
Laurence Rilett, director of AUTRI and the project’s principal investigator, said the work addresses a practical safety question.
“When a truck tire fails at highway speed, it can create a dangerous situation not just for the driver, but for everyone nearby,” Rilett said. “FMCSA is asking whether there’s a reliable, low-cost way for trucking firms and law enforcement identify tire problems earlier — before they lead to blowouts, crashes or debris on the roadway.”
The Auburn Engineering team includes Rilett, David Bevly, the Bill and Lana McNair Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering and co-director of Auburn’s GPS and Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory, and Shiwen Mao, professor and Earle C. Williams Eminent Scholar Chair of electrical and computer engineering and director of Auburn’s Wireless Engineering Research and Education Center. Bevly and Mao will serve as co-principal investigators and focus on testing the technology’s feasibility and reliability.
They will test sensor-enabled RFID tags placed inside truck tires to determine whether they can accurately measure tire pressure and related indicators under real operating conditions — and whether that information is usable for drivers, fleets or inspectors.
The study will evaluate the technology across three real-world use cases that reflect how tire safety decisions are made today. First, the team will test whether tires can be checked while a truck is parked, such as during routine pre-trip and post-trip inspections or roadside inspections conducted by law enforcement. In those situations, a driver or inspector would walk around the vehicle using a handheld device to read tire conditions.
Second, the team will test whether tire data can be captured as trucks pass fixed equipment at low and highway speeds, such as fleet facilities, ramps or inspection stations. This approach could reduce delays by allowing certain tire checks to occur without stopping vehicles.
Finally, the project will test whether continuous, on-vehicle monitoring can provide early warning signs while a truck is in motion. Sensors will track changes in tire conditions over time — such as gradual pressure loss or abnormal strain — and alert drivers or fleet managers before a failure occurs.
Bevly said testing the technology under real-world conditions is essential.
“Tires experience constant changes in load, speed and temperature,” he said. “We’re looking at how these sensors behave not just in a lab, but on actual commercial vehicles, under the conditions trucks face every day. That’s the only way to understand whether this approach is practical.”
Testing will take place in Auburn’s laboratories and on instrumented commercial vehicles operating at the National Center for Asphalt Technology Test Track. The reliability of the sensor signals will also be evaluated in noisy, real-world environments, a key factor in determining whether the technology can support the use cases being tested.
Mao said the work aims to define both the capabilities and limits of the technology.
“This study is about careful evaluation,” he said. “We want to understand what the sensors can detect, how consistent the data is and where the limits are. That kind of clarity is critical when you’re dealing with safety-related systems.”
The project includes industry partners such as Zebra Technologies, Murata, Beontag, Asygn, Decklam Technologies and others. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the state’s lead Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program agency, will provide operational input to all stages of the research.
“This work is about reducing uncertainty,” Rilett said. “If we can help identify technology that improves how tire risks are detected and managed, even incrementally, the potential safety benefits could extend well beyond the trucking industry to include school buses and passenger vehicles.”
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