My guess is that the RFID chips will be used for inventory control at the manufacturing, distribution, & retail ends of things, and also perhaps for maintenance tracking purposes by large fleet operators.
Although the press release mentioned the possibility of the vehicle polling the RFID chip to determine tire data (e.g. speed rating, winter tire or not, etc.), I kind of doubt that will ever come to pass. Not every tire manufacturer in the world will choose to embed RFID chips, and it would not be desirable to have a situation in which a defective RFID chip interfered with the operation of a vehicle.
I suspect we will eventually see these chips in motorcycle tires, but again, for inventory control purposes in the distribution chain, not for any use once they get mounted on the motorcycle and the motorcycle is delivered to the end user.
Michael
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