How worn are your tires? Perhaps you check them by hand regularly, but if you don't, Nokian has developed an alternative. The Finnish tire manufacturer recently announced its SnapSkan service, which uses a 3D scanner to check users' tires as the car is on the road and in motion.

The idea is that SnapSkan units will be installed at places that people drive through on a regular basis anyway, such as entrances to car parks.

As the vehicle goes over the speed bump-like scanner, lasers automatically shine up into the tire treads, measuring their depth – this works for any type of tires, not just Nokians. A camera, meanwhile, captures the car's license plate number.

As the vehicle goes over the speed bump-like SnapSkan scanner, lasers automatically shine up into the tire treads, measuring their depth Nokian

The driver can then request a free tire report, by sending a text message including their plate number. A return message will include that report, along with an option for getting a quote for new tires (if needed) from a partnering dealership.

The first scanning point will be at an underground car park in Helsinki, with others to follow throughout Finland soon after, including at all Vianor tire outlets. In the next few years, the service will be introduced in other countries.

A demo of the technology can be seen in the following video.

Source: Nokian