Facts related to tire pressure

Saving Fuel:

Under inflated tires can decrease a vehicles average MPG by 3.3%.
With well over 250 million non-commercial vehicles (cars, light trucks, & SUV’s) on the American road, citizens could save 5.0 billion gallons of fuel.

That is roughly equivalent to over 650,000 fuel transport trucks parked in a line reaching from Seattle Washington to Key West Florida and back!

Saving Lives:

40,000-70,000 accidents occur each year due to under inflated tires.
Over 30,00 of those accidents result in injuries.
An estimated 660 deaths could have been prevented.

That is equivalent to the number of passengers and crew aboard three to four Boeing 727’s crashing each year.

Saving our Planet:

Driving a vehicle emits carbon dioxide.
Driving a vehicle with under inflated tires increases green house gas emissions by 250lbs. per automobile each year.
Americans contribute 57.5 billion extra pounds of CO₂ per year due to under inflated tires.

That is equivalent to the weight of over 520,000 elephants.

Info related to the TREAD Act

The significance of maintaining proper tire pressure has been highlighted in the past due to the disasters associated with Ford Explorers equipped with Firestone tires. While emphasis was initially placed on the possibility of faulty tire manufacturing, attention turned to low tire pressure as a possible contributing factor to the tragedies. The public outcry was so great that the US Congress passed the TREAD Act to help combat the problem. The TREAD Act requires tire pressure monitoring on specific new vehicles in the United States. It requires a warning light indicator on the dash area to alert the driver if a tire becomes 25% below the recommended inflation and allows for a 20-minute delay in alerting the driver. Additionally, the Act does not require all replacement tires to work with monitoring systems. Monitoring low tire pressure will aid in reducing the problems only to the extent that drivers act on the information. Unfortunately, the infrastructure is not readily available to the public to properly maintain their tires, and most systems are not adequate. Running your vehicle with a 15-20% under inflated tire would not activate the warning and they do not identify low pressure quickly enough, for whatever the reasons. At that point, damage to the tire may have already occurred or worse, the driver could have had a blowout. The MAXAIR system is accurate to within 1-2% and displays a real time pressure reading. The benefit of this product is that the system continuously reads the tire pressure and supplies air as needed. It will also continuously cycle and supply air until the tire can be repaired or replaced. MAXAIR works on all replacement tires, with no special tools or re-calibration needed. While mandating low tire pressure monitoring on all vehicles will assist responsible citizens in maintaining proper tire pressure, it will not eliminate the problems of vehicles operating with low tire pressure. Vehicles equipped with ATMI systems would remove the necessity for human intervention to maintain proper pressure.

Info related to the Heavy-duty trucking industry

Heavy-duty trucks have the same tire issues as passenger vehicles as well as the fact that their improperly inflated tires pose a potential danger to other motorists. Large slices of treads are thrown from tractors (trucks) and trailers, called “alligators”, and litter the highways. Vehicles currently equipped with ATMI systems reduce the possibility of lost tire treads by 90%. A Tire Debris Prevention Task Force organized in 1996 by The Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Association collected 1,070 large fragments of truck tires along eight sections of U.S. highways. Only 11 fragments indicated defective treading had victimized that tire. Instead, failure analysis suggested that most “alligators” came from otherwise healthy tires with punctures that resulted in low air pressure. While the issue of safety is of primary importance, truck fleets have long been aware of the economic benefits of properly inflated tires. Goodyear, Firestone, and Michelin are among the list of tire manufacturers that have repeatedly conducted tests to show the economic advantage associated with proper tire pressure. While low tire pressure decreases gas mileage, it also reduces tire life and the service costs to replace the tire as well as the loss of revenue while the truck or trailer is being serviced add to the maintenance cost associated with under inflated tires.

Environmental Info

A properly inflated tire is second on the list of things consumers can do to help stop global warming. Installing MAXAIR systems would greatly reduce our CO₂ emissions from cars, which are one of the major contributors to greenhouse gases. The system would also decrease the need for the over 225 million replacement tires that are purchased annually. That means fewer tires in landfills and less money and energy incurred for new tires to be manufactured.

With all the available information, both on the web and in the media, we are inundated with reasons for the real and urgent need for this product as well as the expediency with which it needs to be brought to the market.