Demo Vehicle ready to go!
The interest for cost saving indirect TPMS is constantly increasing. Many OEMs have stopped by in Linköping, Sweden to discuss the performance and technique of TPI by NIRA. Customers with little experience of indirect TPMS expect to be able to play around with the system in a car to understand its characteristics. This has been a problem for us. Why? None of the following alternatives is really optimal for this kind of demonstrations.
Alternative 1: The customer rents a car with TPI inside, and evaluates the system.
The problem: The system evaluated is an old system developed years ago. The customers want to make a decision to go indirect for cars where ECE R-64 applies, that is, now.
This is simply not available at a rent-a-car company.
Alternative 2: The customer comes to Linköping to get a ride in one of the cars available in another development project and then looks in our data collection tool to see the performance.
The problem: The customer is here for a couple of days. An in depth evaluation is not possible due to time constraints. The tests are prepared by NIRA, the roads are unfamiliar, the car cannot be borrowed since it belongs to another customer. In short – no full freedom for the customer.
Alternative 3: The customer provides a car in which a demo application is performed.
The problem: A quick evaluation is not possible. It takes a couple of months before an application is developed for that specific vehicle.
Nowadays there is an Alternative 4!
NIRA has purchased a VW Passat that can be used for demonstration. The Passat was chosen as it is a very popular vehicle which can be regarded as representative for many other vehicle types. The series ESC system from TRW has been changed to a so-called development unit. This means that the customer can play around with the latest TPI software version from NIRA.
“Now we have everything running, and are proud to be able to say that we have one of the very few vehicles world-wide equipped with a TPMS already complying with the future EU legislation ECE-R 64! The NIRA demo vehicle can be borrowed by our customers to explore the full performance of TPI by NIRA and test it to the limits.” explains Martin Petersson who is in charge of the acquisition and refurbishment of the Demo vehicle.
2012-03-30