WCX 2025: Nira Dynamics’ Sensor-Free Tire Pressure Tech Eyes New Opportunities

Putting a tariff on physical components gives software alternatives a potential boost.

April 9, 2025

Sebastian Blanco

At WCX 2025, Nira Dynamics showed how its road surface alert technology was able to identify road problems in real time in the Detroit area. (Sebastian Blanco)

You can learn a lot from the sensors found in anti-lock braking systems, even if you don’t really care about the brakes. Nira Dynamics, for example, has been using information gathered from these sensors for almost 20 years and has learned how to interpret the signals in order to better understand what’s going on under the car: to determine if a wheel is loose, tire pressure, tread wear and even road conditions.

Nira, based in Sweden, introduced its TPI UX in 2006. Today, the tech meets the FMVSS 138 (U.S.) and R141 (European) safety regulations and is used in over 120 million vehicles globally, including 15 million in the U.S. and around 40% of the vehicles in Europe, including models from Volkswagen, Audi, Volvo and Honda. The software-based system collects around two dozen signals – including wheel speed, rolling radiuses, various frequencies – from the ABS to identify tire and road conditions. A similar technology called Sensing Core that uses software installed on the brake ECU was announced by Sumitomo at CES 2024.

Nira Dynamics has developed a user-friendly interface to display notifications from its TPMS-free tire pressure indicator UX, which is AUTOSAR compliant and fulfills all current TPMS legislation, the company said. (Nira Dynamics)

Without actual pressure sensors, Nira’s system relies on the driver telling the car that the tires are correctly inflated when freshly filled up to display the tire pressure percentage, but the other information - road surface details, tire looseness - can flow even without that original baseline. Currently, there is a preference for actual sensors in the tires among U.S. OEMs, but political realities might force them to rethink their stance, Nira’s sales and business development manager, Gregory Weber, told SAE Media at WCX 2025.

“All those pressure sensors are going to die,” he said. “It’s not if they’re going to die, it’s when. It’s usually about four or five years, because the battery is going to wear out, and then you got to buy another one, which is $100. NHTSA just issued a report on this, especially people with older vehicles, they don’t have 100 bucks to throw at that. So they ignore it. Ours never dies because it’s in the anti-lock brakes. So as long as that thing works - and if it doesn’t work, you’ve got bigger problems – it’ll work.”

What was that about tariffs?

Around 15 million cars are on the road in the U.S. with Nira’s tire sensing technology today, but the ongoing political chaos might open up more opportunities. That’s because all the hardware required to install actual sensort drives up cost.

“All the hardware, the pressure sensors and all that, we conservatively estimate a $20-per-vehicle cost saving,” Weber said. “And in the automotive industry, if you can save pennies, it’s usually a big deal.”

That $20 number might be rapidly changing, too.

“We’ve solved all the [technical] problems, I think,” Weber said. “And what’s really cool is it’s just software. We get embedded in someone’s controller somewhere, and we’re good to go. And now it’s kind of relevant. We can take away a lot of hardware that’s produced in China that is now subject to an extra 25% or whatever the hell it is, 105% today, tariff, and all the logistical problems.”