Michelin Has Been Putting RFID Tags In Its Tires - And Here's Why

Over the past couple of decades, technological advancements in the auto industry have made cars, trucks, and SUVs smarter, safer, more efficient, and even more entertaining for both drivers and passengers. Auto manufacturers will likely continue to use tech to enhance the driving experience for the foreseeable future, and it would seem that at least one of the world's major tire makers is now dipping its toe into the tech realm to similar ends. 

That tire maker is none other than Michelin, with the family-owned French manufacturer using one particular piece of technology in its products for roughly a decade now. That piece of tech is known as an RFID tag, and Michelin has been outfitting some of its tires with the digital devices since 2017.

RFID, which stands for Radio Frequency Identification, has been around in various iterations since the 1970s. It uses specific radio waves to identify tagged objects or even people. Given the device's tracking capabilities, the question for many consumers might be what, exactly, Michelin is using RFID tags for in its tires. Thankfully, the manufacturer's RFID tag program isn't quite as sinister as it might seem, with the tech focused primarily on monitoring the tires themselves — not the drivers.

When Michelin started using RFID tags in 2017, it did so primarily in its commercial-grade tires. The company only started tagging passenger tires with the devices in the 2020s, and it's not the only manufacturer using them. Now, before you spin off into a paranoia-fueled rant about Big Brother, you should know that Michelin is not using RFID tags to track your movements. In fact, the manufacturer likely couldn't use RFID tags for that purpose even if it wanted to. That's because the devices are designed to emit only a short-wave signal, which prevents any sort of long-range tracking past the point of purchase.

So, why, then, does Michelin use RFID tags in its tires? According to the company, it is using the tags to track the tires themselves through various stages of their life cycle. This starts from the manufacturing phase, includes the shipping and delivery of its tires to retailers, improves inventory management, and follows the tires through various stages of maintenance and their inevitable retirement from active duty, as it were. 

It is not entirely clear, however, how often tagged Michelin tires might be scanned during the course of usage by owners. But rest assured that the opportunity for Michelin to scan those RFID tags for other purposes would appear to be relatively limited.