In order to test our winter, summer and all-season tires under a variety of seasonal conditions, we have our own test tracks in Arvidsjaur (Sweden), Jeversen (Germany), Uvalde (USA) and Hefei (China). Scandinavia or Sweden provides us with the best possible conditions to satisfy the test criteria for winter tires. In addition to testing at the in-house Contidrom, we test summer tires in the U.S.A. and New Zealand.
Our test tracks are standardized, which means that their surfaces are identical. And to make sure they stay that way, the tracks are regularly checked. Testing takes place on various types of terrain as well as under all weather conditions. As a result, Continental carries out more than 67,000 tire tests a year worldwide. According to our calculations, the tires we test circumnavigate the world around 625 times.
The Contidrom in Wietze, near Hanover, is among the most advanced test tracks in the world.
The Contidrom is the prototype and reference for all tire test tracks at Continental. When it opened in 1967, only the 2.8-kilometer high-speed oval – which remains impressive to this day – was available. Over time, the test facility has been continually expanded and tracks such as the 1.8-kilometer wet-handling course and the 3.8-kilometer dry-handling track were added.
Research and Development in China
The young R&D center in Hefei, China, is equipped with state-of-the-art testing equipment. This also includes a drum test bench that has been specially built for the year-round testing of tires for the fast-growing Chinese market.
In Arvidsjaur, our winter tires are put to the test
At temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius, Continental tests its winter tires in the snow of northern Sweden. 2,000 sets pass through the test track in Arvidsjaur. The journey to the icy polar site takes around three to four days with the necessary equipment.
The future in the middle of nowhere
Continentals' most secret test track is located in no man's land, Texas, near San Antonio. The remoteness makes it easy to put new tires and components through their paces. The highlights are the 13.7-kilometre-long high-speed oval and the wet autocross pool.
Simulation is growing in importance for tire testing and is constantly being refined. More and more tests are now automated and carried out virtually. This allows us to develop tires more efficiently and sustainably and with greater precision in accordance with the specific customer requirements.
Automated Indoor Braking Analyzer (AIBA)
In 2012, we presented the Automated Indoor Braking Analyzer (AIBA). This one-of-a-kind facility allows the brake performance of tires fitted to fully automated driverless vehicles to be tested on different road surfaces – all year round and regardless of the weather. The AIBA enables tire testing with constant friction coefficients and freely selectable road surfaces under fully air-conditioned test conditions throughout the year.
In AIBA, real vehicles are tested on real road surfaces under fully air-conditioned conditions.
AVA (Analytic Vehicle AIBA)
Continental employs one of the most advanced and precise tire brake test procedures in the world. To this end, the tire manufacturer has developed a driverless, fully automated, and fully electric test vehicle that measures the braking performance of car tires. The tests are intended to help reduce the braking distance of tires further and thereby ensure greater safety in road traffic.
The Analytic Vehicle AIBA, or AVA, enables friction properties of tires to be precisely monitored when the brakes are applied on dry and wet roads. With the AVA, Continental is combining the advantages of a testing method that can be used on all vehicle models with the controlled and reproducible test environment of the Automated Indoor Braking Analyzer for the first time. This allows our tire experts to perform tests irrespective of vehicle- or model-specific characteristics. The cutting-edge test vehicle, which is the only one of its kind in the world, is used at the company’s own test track, the Contidrom.
AVA enables precise and vehicle-independent determination of the friction properties of tires during braking maneuvers.
Dynamic driving simulator provides subjective driving impressions
At our largest European tire testing center, the Contidrom, we are working with an innovative dynamic driving simulator. This is what is known as a driver-in-the-loop simulator, which calculates the exact driving dynamics parameters for the tire and the test vehicle. Thanks to its high mobility, the simulator can provide Continental’s professional test drivers with exactly the same subjective driving impressions as tire tests on the test track. This way, test drivers can try out newly developed tires in a wide variety of virtual test scenarios and driving situations. As a result, around 100,000 kilometers fewer need to be driven on real roads or real test tracks each year. What’s more, roughly 10,000 test tires can be saved per year.
In the driving simulator, test drivers test a dedicated tire model for a specific vehicle model variant in a virtual environment.
