If you’re worried about a robot uprising powered by the invisible hand of artificial intelligence, we have some bad news for you — the machines are coming for your wheels. The latest innovation in tire-changing tech comes from Michigan-based RoboTire.
The robot can change a set of four wheels in 23 minutes. That’s an age compared to what you might expect from a Formula 1 pitstop, but, according to the company, it’s twice as fast as a human under normal operating conditions (read: not a team of mechanics in motorsport).
The RoboTire uses two six-axis arms, one for each side of a car. The arms are the same kind that automakers use on assembly lines, with the ability to do heavy lifting. The system is powered by AI, which uses cameras to scan the wheel of a car, and notes the location of the wheel and its bolt pattern. Once scanned, the arm’s in-built torque wrench will individually unbolt each lug nut, and the arm will then grab the wheel and remove it before refitting a new wheel or a freshly changed tire.
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Currently, human supervision is required for the whole process, and you still need a technician to take the dismounted wheel to a tire-changing machine. But the information that the RoboTire has garnered from its cameras — such as wheel size and tire type — is automatically relayed to the tire changing machine to save time.
Thanks to AI, the machine is always said to be learning. That means that no matter what size wheel or bolt pattern you bring in, it’ll be able to figure it out. It can even work if the wheel is caked in mud or snow, so long as the edge of the lug nuts is visible. There are four stores with RoboTire machines in operation, and they’re all connected. This hivemind enables the robots to get faster as they “train” on differing wheels and sizes.
It’s easy to see some advantages, with the labor-intensive elements of the tire change, such as lifting a heavy wheel off and on a car now no longer a problem for mechanics. However, Fox News Digital reports that the eventual goal for the RoboTire system will be a fully-autonomous solution.
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Could this be the beginning of the end for tire shop techs? The company seems to downplay the risk of impacting jobs, with its website suggesting that the system will make work safer for technicians. But, you have to wonder what’s in store for the future of tire-changing.
In fact, the owner of Creamery Tire in Pennsylvania, Rich Shainline, remarked that their RoboTire robot has helped the company address the ongoing labor shortage. “Our big thing is, we have to move product, and I can put one guy on it instead of two,” Shainline said.
Although pricing hasn’t been made publicly available, RoboTire expects most operators to see payback within a year, taking into account increased productivity and reduced labor costs.