Smart Tire Industry (US) – Patent Innovation and Trends

A tire is the only part of a vehicle that touches the road, and it is turning into one of the vehicle’s sensors. Readings from inside the tire, such as pressure, temperature, wear, load and grip, can warn of a blowout before it happens, tell a fleet manager when to replace a tire, or tell an autonomous truck how hard it can brake on a wet road. At CES 2026, Goodyear showed its SightLine tire sensing feeding road-friction data into NVIDIA’s autonomous driving platform before the car needed to brake.

The open question is who will own that capability, and the US patent record gives a clear answer: not the tire makers alone. Across 3,206 US smart tire patents and applications published between January 2023 and September 2026, vehicle makers hold more than tire makers (818 against 740), sensor and component suppliers hold the most of all (1,256), and 696 organisations share the field without any one of them holding more than 7%. Bridgestone leads with 224 patents, followed by Volvo Trucks and Toyota.

The data also shows where the contest is heading. Vehicle makers are the only group gaining share of new filings, autonomous driving developers are arriving as new filers, and tire makers, who protect their inventions most widely abroad, wait the longest for US grants. This article maps who is filing and how fast, where smart tire inventions come from and where they are protected, how hard they are to get granted, and which patents matter most.

Key takeaways

• Vehicle makers hold more US smart tire patents (818) than tire makers (740), and their share of new publications rose from 23.4% in 2023 to 25.7% in 2026, peaking at 29.6% in 2025.
• The field is crowded: 696 organisations file, the top 10 hold only 32.3% of patents, and 511 organisations have just one or two.
• Tire makers wait longest for grants, a median 3.9 years against 2.6 years for vehicle makers.
• Autonomous driving developers are among the newest filers, and they protect 44.9% of their inventions in the US only.
• 53.0% of granted patents left the USPTO with fewer claims than they were filed with.

The US smart tire patent landscape

How many smart tire patents are published every year?

Publications grew 33.2% between 2023 and 2025, and pending applications are rising faster than grants.

US smart tire patents by publication year

• Granted patents
• Pending applications

Publications grew from 740 in 2023 to 986 in 2025, a rise of 33.2%. In the first eight months of 2026 another 612 appeared, putting the year on course for a total close to 2025. Pending applications are growing faster than grants, from 227 in 2023 to 391 in 2025, so more granted smart tire patents are on the way.

Who files smart tire patents?

Vehicle makers hold more smart tire patents than tire makers (818 against 740), and suppliers hold the most of all.

US smart tire patents by type of organisation

• Suppliers & specialists (508 organisations)1,256
• Vehicle makers (59 organisations)818
• Tire makers (27 organisations)740
• Autonomous driving & tech (42 organisations)236
• Academia & research (49 organisations)79
• Aerospace (11 organisations)77

Smart tires are not only a tire-industry story. Just 27 tire makers hold 740 patents (23.1%), while 59 vehicle makers hold 818 (25.5%), more than the tire makers combined. The largest group is 508 suppliers and specialists, from sensor makers such as Bosch, Denso and Sensata to valve, inflation and inspection specialists, with 39.2%. Autonomous driving developers, aircraft makers and 49 universities and research organisations also file. For tire makers, the data their tires generate is increasingly being addressed in patents from the companies that build the vehicles around them.

Are vehicle makers gaining ground on tire makers?

Vehicle makers are the only group gaining share of new filings; tire makers are holding steady and suppliers are slipping.

Share of new smart tire publications by type of organisation

• Tire makers
• Vehicle makers
• Suppliers & specialists

Vehicle makers’ share of new publications rose from 23.4% in 2023 to 29.6% in 2025 before easing to 25.7% in 2026, and has been ahead of tire makers in three of the four years. Tire makers’ share stayed in a 21–27% range with no clear trend. Suppliers still publish the most, but their share has slipped every year, from 42.0% to 38.1%. Vehicle makers are the only major group gaining ground, which makes them the most likely partners, or competitors, for tire makers’ sensing ambitions.

Which companies hold the most smart tire patents?

Bridgestone leads with 224 patents, but no company holds more than 7% of the field.

Top 15 US smart tire patent holders

• Tire makers
• Vehicle makers
• Suppliers & specialists
• Aerospace

Bridgestone leads with 224 patents, nearly twice the next holder, yet that is only 7.0% of the field. After it, vehicle makers (Volvo Trucks, Toyota, Hyundai Motor, Kia, Ford, GM) and tire makers (Goodyear, Continental, Michelin, Yokohama) are interleaved. The top 10 hold only 32.3% of all patents, and 511 of the 696 organisations hold just one or two. No single company controls this field yet.

Hyundai Motor and Kia file together: all 115 of their smart tire patents are co-owned by both companies, five of them also with Korean universities. Each company is therefore shown with the full 115 in the company rankings.

Pending share shows what is still coming. About half or more of Goodyear’s (55.8%), Volvo Trucks’ (54.0%) and Bridgestone’s (50.4%) smart tire filings are still applications, so their granted positions should grow noticeably over the next two to three years.

Which companies are filing faster than the field?

Volvo Cars and Volvo Trucks published more than 70% of their smart tire patents in 2025–2026, the fastest among large filers.

Share of each company’s smart tire patents published in 2025–2026

Across the whole landscape, 49.8% of records were published in 2025–2026, so a company above that is filing faster than the field. Both Volvo companies stand out: 75.0% of Volvo Cars’ and 71.8% of Volvo Trucks’ smart tire patents were published in that window, the fastest growth among large filers. Sysgration, a Taiwanese tire-pressure sensor maker, and Hitachi Astemo are also speeding up, while Pacific Industrial, a long-time tire-pressure sensor supplier, has slowed sharply (17.9%). Companies above the line are the ones to watch for new grants in 2027–2028.

Which new players are filing smart tire patents?

Autonomous trucking and robotaxi developers make up four of the ten newest filers.

Among organisations with five or more patents whose first application in this dataset dates from 2022 or later, four are autonomous trucking and robotaxi developers: TuSimple (now CreateAI), Torc Robotics, GM Cruise and PlusAI. For a self-driving truck, tire grip, load and failure warnings replace what a human driver would feel through the wheel, which is why these companies patent tire-related sensing. The rest are vehicle makers, suppliers and Toyota Research Institute. First application year is measured within this dataset, so companies that filed before 2022, such as FCA, may appear as new.

How active are small and micro entities?

Small entities file 15.5% of smart tire patents but keep 35.7% of their inventions in the US only, against 22.7% for larger filers.

Small and micro entities with the most smart tire patents

496 patents (15.5%) come from 253 organisations paying reduced USPTO fees as small or micro entities. The most active are Sysgration (27), TuSimple, now CreateAI (24), and Lyten (16), which builds sensors into tire rubber. Small entities get patents granted about as often as larger filers (60.7% of their records against 62.3%), but they protect abroad less: 35.7% of their inventions are US-only, against 22.7% for larger filers. Their inventions are therefore more often unprotected outside the US.

Where do smart tire inventions come from?

52.7% start in the US, followed by Europe (19.3%) and Japan (16.1%); China is the origin of just 3.2%.

Where US smart tire inventions were first filed

52.7% of these inventions were first filed in the US. Europe as a whole accounts for 19.3%, split across the European Patent Office, Germany, France, Italy and the UK, while Japan, the largest single country after the US, accounts for 16.1%. China is the first filing country for just 104 records (3.2%), mostly supplier and autonomous driving inventions, and none of them belong to a tire maker. Among tire makers, Japan is the largest origin after the US, with 223 records, reflecting Bridgestone, Yokohama, Sumitomo and Toyo Tire.

Where else are smart tire inventions protected?

China is the most common second market, ahead of Europe; tire makers protect most widely and autonomous driving developers least.

Share of US smart tire patents with family members in other jurisdictions

Share of patents protected in the US only, by type of organisation

Three in four smart tire inventions are also protected outside the US, and China is the most common second market (51.2%), ahead of Europe (44.5%). Tire makers protect most widely: only 15.0% of their inventions are US-only, and 63.0% also cover China. That global reach was one of the strengths behind the eight tire makers recognised in GreyB’s Smart Tires Spotlight Award 2026. Autonomous driving developers are the opposite, with 44.9% of their inventions protected in the US alone. Vehicle makers file in China (51.3%) about twice as often as in Europe (27.6%), which suggests where they expect smart-tire features to be sold.

How hard is it to get a smart tire patent granted?

Tire makers wait a median 3.9 years for a US grant, against 2.6 years for vehicle makers, and most grants come with narrower claims.

Median time from filing to grant, by type of organisation

The median smart tire patent takes 2.9 years from filing to grant. Tire makers wait the longest, 3.9 years, against 2.6 years for vehicle makers. The gap sits mainly with Yokohama (4.7 years), Michelin (4.5) and Bridgestone (3.9), the slowest of the large filers, while GM (2.3), Goodyear (2.4) and Toyota (2.4) are the fastest. Part of the gap comes from where an invention starts: those first filed outside the US take a median 3.2 years, against 2.7 years for US-first inventions. But even US-first inventions from tire makers take 3.4 years, so the delay is not only a matter of where the invention started. Goodyear is the exception among tire makers, though it also has the highest share of applications still pending, so its figure may rise as those are decided.

Median time to grant by number of office actions

Each extra office action adds about six to seven months. Only 18.6% of grants came without any office action, and 21.9% needed at least one request for continued examination. Examiners also narrow what is granted: 53.0% of granted patents left the USPTO with fewer claims than they were filed with, and the median fell from 20 to 17 claims.

Prioritised examination is the clearest way to speed things up. 144 applications used Track One, and the 118 already granted took a median 2.5 years, against 2.9 years overall. Continental, Yokohama and Bridgestone use it most among large filers. For tire makers facing the longest waits, wider use of Track One and claims drafted to avoid repeated office actions are the most direct ways to close the gap.

Who is using continuations to extend smart tire patent families?

Bridgestone, Toyota and Ford extend their families most; GM, Bosch and Denso do not use continuations at all.

The 3,206 records in this landscape belong to 2,957 patent families. 482 records (15.0%) are continuations, continuations-in-part or divisionals of earlier US applications, and 201 carry a terminal disclaimer tying them to a related patent. Companies use these to keep claims open and add new variations as products evolve.

Bridgestone (14.7% of its records), Toyota (12.8%) and Ford (11.6%) use the approach most among the large filers, while GM, Bosch, Denso, Hitachi Astemo and Sumitomo Rubber have none. A competitor designing around a Bridgestone, Toyota or Ford patent should expect related claims to keep appearing.

Which smart tire patents are most cited?

Specialists such as Wheelright, Lyten and Midtronics hold the most-cited tire-specific patents, ahead of the tire makers.

The most cited patent in the whole landscape is US11840258B2, Mobileye’s patent on navigating with safe distances, with 53 citations. Our Mobileye patent analysis covers its wider portfolio. It, and most of the overall top 10, are autonomous driving and driver-monitoring systems that mention tire sensing as one feature of a broader vehicle system, so their citation counts reflect the wider autonomous driving field. No tire maker appears in that overall top 10.

The table below therefore lists the most cited patents that mention tires in their title or abstract.

Among tire-specific patents, specialists lead: Wheelright’s sidewall imaging method, two Lyten patents on sensors built into tire materials and Midtronics’ tread gauge. Goodyear, Bridgestone and Sumitomo Rubber enter further down, with pending applications. On average, a tire maker’s patent here has been cited 0.22 times, against 0.38 for suppliers and specialists. These are young patents, so counts are small, but so far the inventions later filers build on most come from specialists rather than tire makers.

Which smart tire patents face litigation or challenges?

Only nine patents have been litigated and two challenged at the PTAB, a sign of a young field.

Legal activity is still rare, which is typical of a young field. Nine patents carry a litigation record and two face inter partes review (IPR) at the PTAB. They are spread across sensor assemblies, trailer camera systems, vehicle control and one Bridgestone method for embedding electronics in rubber.

Five of these records are published applications (pending), which cannot be litigated themselves; their litigation record comes from a related patent in the same family. Cerebrum Sensor Technologies appears twice, with one patent in litigation and a related one under IPR.

For IP teams, the litigated and challenged patents are the first ones to check in any freedom-to-operate review, because their owners have already shown they will enforce or defend them.

How many smart tire patents are still alive?

95.2% of the landscape is still in force, so almost every smart tire right remains a live constraint.

Almost all of them. Only 155 records (4.8%) are inactive, and 153 of those are abandoned applications rather than lapsed patents. 17 applications were allowed but then abandoned because the issue fee was never paid, which usually means the applicant decided the patent was no longer worth having.

Autonomous driving developers drop the largest share of their filings (6.8%), while aircraft makers drop the fewest (2.6%). With most of this landscape published in the last four years, nearly every smart tire right is still in force, so freedom-to-operate checks need to cover the full set.

What the smart tire patent landscape means for tire makers, vehicle makers and suppliers

Smart tire patenting in the US is growing steadily and is still wide open: hundreds of organisations file, and no company holds more than 7% of the field. Vehicle makers are the only major group gaining share, while suppliers are losing it and tire makers are holding steady. Tire makers still protect their inventions most widely abroad, but they also wait longest for US grants. For tire makers the priority is speed and partnerships; for vehicle makers and suppliers, the open field is a chance to own the data layer before it consolidates. The next section looks at what these patents actually protect.

What are the key innovation segments in smart tires?

Smart tire patents can be grouped into innovation segments based on what each invention senses, processes or controls. The three views below cover which technologies the landscape protects, who leads in each, and how the focus has shifted over the years. These detailed segment insights are being prepared and will be unlocked soon.

What technologies are covered in smart tire patents?

Which companies lead each smart tire technology?

The chart below distributes smart tire patents by technology and by the companies that file them, showing which players lead each technology.

How has smart tire R&D focus changed over the years?

EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS COMING SOON!