KEEPING track of tires is no problem for most motorists, even if they own more than one car and switch between sets of winter and summer treads. But for commercial fleets that operate hundreds of trucks with 18 tires each, knowing the history and location of individual tires is more pressing.

Engineers at Michelin have developed electronic tire-tracking systems that use batteryless radio-frequency identification tags  microchip devices working on the same principle as an E-ZPass tag  to log important information that stays with the tires.

Image ID Michelins tag.

For commercial truckers, tires are valuable assets; they must be properly inflated to avoid the costly downtime required when they wear out prematurely. Tires used on 18-wheelers are retreaded when they wear down  a service life of 700,000 miles, with three retreads, is typical.