Since 2012, Continental’s automated indoor braking analyzer (AIBA) has carried out one million trips, testing more than 130,000 tires. The AIBA facility provides reproducible test conditions for the analysis of tire performance on various road surfaces, including wet and dry conditions.
Operated by Continental’s Global Tire Testing division, the AIBA uses unmanned, rail-guided vehicles to simulate real-world driving scenarios, at speeds of up to 120km/h. Its electromagnetic linear drive system enables autonomous acceleration and braking, eliminating the need for fuel and reducing environmental impact. The facility’s fully automated and climate-controlled environment enables consistent testing conditions, to enhance the comparability of results. The braking tests can also be carried out independently of vehicle-specific properties.
“We can achieve a particularly high level of comparability of the test results in a fully air-conditioned, weather-independent and fully automated environment,” said Meletis Xigakis, head of global tire testing at Continental.
Since 2022, the company has also been testing tires with the help of the Analytical Vehicle AIBA (AVA), a fully electric, driverless test vehicle developed in-house that can be used instead of a serial car or van. AVA enables vehicle-independent determination of the friction properties of tires during braking maneuvers, Continental says.
“Braking is essential for road safety,” Xigakis said. “That’s why we put a lot of effort into being able to analyze the performance of our tires as precisely as possible.”
