WUESCHHEIM, Germany -- TRW Automotive has developed its next generation tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) – a hybrid system that uses a combination of sensing technologies to provide automatic location functionality.

The system uses basic, wheel-mounted direct TPMS sensors to measure the pressure and temperature of the air inside a tire, and combines this with data from a vehicle's ABS or ESC wheel speed sensors to provide an auto-location function and notify the driver which tire or tires may have low pressure.

Martin Thoone, vice president, electronics engineering at TRW, said design improvements also lowered cost for this product.  

"Our new hybrid system has the advantage of a premium auto-location system, but eliminates the need for the additional electronics hardware previously required to locate the sensor positions. Furthermore, the receiver can be located inside the vehicle, which enables us to reduce housing costs – and therefore makes this our most affordable auto-location system yet," Thoone said.

Like TRW's current direct TPMS (dTPMS) systems, the technology includes four basic wheel-mounted sensors to directly monitor the individual tire pressure levels, but eliminates the need for the electronic initiators previously required to locate the sensor positions, the company says. The receiver is typically mounted in the passenger compartment, and can identify tire locations by correlating data from the TPMS sensors and the vehicle's ABS/ ESC sensors.

Thoone concluded: "Although we support customers with indirect TPMS systems, at TRW we believe that direct TPMS is the best technical solution for both tire safety and to help reduce CO2 emissions and improve fuel consumption. With this market set to grow over the next five to 10 years due to impending or potential regulations in Europe and Asia, we will continue to develop our TPMS technology portfolio to offer a more affordable solution for our customers. Our new Hybrid TPMS technology is an important step in this direction."

TRW anticipates that its hybrid TPMS will be ready for production in 2013.