Do you know how your tires wear out on your car? I believe that many car owners can not answer, the maintenance fast maintenance shop on the road does not necessarily know, even the teacher who has repaired the car for many years can not be distinguished at a glance, at most it is through the wear marks on the tire to suggest whether you want to change the tire.
And now, the wear and tear of the tires has been "visualized" in real time, can you believe it? Recently, Tesla pushed a software update, the owner can understand the degree of wear of the four tires on the car in real time through the car screen.
This feature is a boon for many car owners, so will it be widely popularized in the future?
01
The new system shows tire wear and bias wear
According to foreign media reports, this feature is part of Tesla's push of OTA software updates on 2021.44.5, in addition to the regular tire pressure monitoring, it is also able to show whether the tires are worn.
More importantly, the system can also detect whether the tire has bias wear, which is not only a reference for the replacement cycle of the tire product, but also provides the owner with reference data for chassis tuning, because the tire partial wear is usually related to key components such as steering knuckles and the front harness.
Judging from the screenshots released by the media, when the system detects that there is a problem with the tire, a warning message will pop up, informing the owner that the tread depth of the tire is too low, and recommending that the driver "check and adjust the tire". As for how Tesla implements this function, the official has not given an accurate answer, and the relevant media speculates that it should be achieved by checking the number of tire rotations.
We must first know the fact that when a tire tread is badly worn, its volume will become smaller, and it will rotate more laps at the same speed than the new tire, and it is speculated that Tesla is likely to achieve tire detection by measuring the number of rotations of the wheel and comparing it with the standard preset value.
If a tire rotates faster than the preset, it means that it has become smaller, that is, the tread wear rate is relatively fast, then the tire wear can be checked; and according to such calculation rules, if one tire rotates faster than the other three tires, this may mean that its wear is uneven, and then the chassis can be checked.
Of course, because Tesla OTA upgrade is in batches, domestic users should not be able to upgrade the function temporarily, but since foreign countries have been launched, then domestic car owners are estimated to be able to enjoy this function in the near future, I believe this update is a blessing for many novices who have just driven and drivers who do not know tire maintenance.
02
The tire industry is accelerating on the road to digitalization
Technology is people-oriented, and this statement is not wrong at all. Although the Tesla brand has been criticized in the industry, it has to admit that there are two brushes in product innovation, and the new feature mentioned above is a good example.
With the advent of the digital and information age, communication technology, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and other technologies are developing rapidly, and they are also changing automotive products and the automotive industry.
Before the Internet entered the automotive industry, automotive companies were product-centric. The mission of automobile enterprises is to produce high-quality cars for users, automotive products are sold through 4S stores, and repair, maintenance and other services are responsible for by 4S stores.
Now these new car companies similar to Tesla have transformed from traditional manufacturers to digital enterprises from research and development to operation of digital products, and the value chain of the automotive industry has also evolved. Take the single category of tires, which has also undergone a major change.
Before 2010, tires can be said to be oem matching and replacement market domestic sales boom. However, the tire market showed a gradually intensified competitive situation in the following years, on the one hand, the number of new car purchases in China slowed down, resulting in a decline in the number of original supporting tires. On the other hand, the previous high gross profit of tires has gradually disappeared, and for dealers, the sales task of tire companies has become more and more difficult.
More importantly, the tire industry is under tremendous pressure from "external competition" – O2O, S2C e-commerce platforms and B2b vertical supply chain platforms. The common point of these two platforms is to follow the general trend of "Internet", using digital operation methods to almost subvert the channel price system and supply model that has been stable for many years.
And if we look down from the sales end to the back end, in fact, digitalization has made greater changes to the tire after-sales channels!
03
The tire scanner knows the history at a glance
Tesla has installed monitoring devices on the car, and in the domestic automotive aftermarket, it is through external instruments to achieve similar functions. It is also achieved through big data, more widely used in downstream repair stores, technicians just take out this tire scanner to scan the tire, you can get a report.
This report can be displayed directly through the screen of the detector, or can be sent directly to customers on WeChat, and can be printed in color, and the data will be archived so that the owner can see the historical situation. There are standards, there are data, there are pictures, there are suggestions, there are tracking, and they are online, very intuitive!
So I personally believe that this service has the potential to become the standard for tire stores in the future, which is very worthy of the attention of all independent aftermarket store operators.
Of course, the current threshold for introducing this device will be a bit high, which is not only the cost of the equipment, but also the adjustment process, landing execution, etc. Therefore, the first batch of stores that use this equipment well, in addition to the long-term vision of the boss and the strong profitability of the store, should also have a certain level in terms of operational capabilities.
As for the issue of cost, I believe that with the popularity of the volume, the cost will continue to decline, but in the initial stage, it is really necessary to support mainstream manufacturers, configure a suitable business policy, guide retailers to build a differentiated service, in order to strengthen the viscosity of consumers to the brand, I believe that discerning manufacturers will make wise judgments.
To sum up, in the future, the entire automotive industry will go faster and faster on the road of digitalization, and perhaps we will see more black technology in these new car-making forces in the future. But what needs us to ponder is whether such a change is a "double-edged sword"?