From the person who built this — and what you should know
Because most people don't know tires expire. Seriously. There's a manufacture date stamped on every tire sidewall — the DOT code — and almost nobody has ever looked at it. Tires degrade from the inside out, even sitting in a garage. After 6 years, the rubber compounds break down regardless of how much tread is left. NHTSA says replace them. Most tire shops say replace them. But how many people actually check?
AI can read the DOT code perfectly — that's just text recognition on a sidewall. It can decode the tire size, speed rating, load index, and manufacture date. That part is rock solid. The date code is black and white: your tire was made in week 23 of 2019, period. No ambiguity. No interpretation needed.
Visual tread assessment is rough. AI can see if tread looks worn, if there are visible cracks, if there's a bulge on the sidewall. But it cannot measure tread depth in 32nds of an inch. The penny test and a proper tread depth gauge are still the gold standard for tread measurement. And internal belt separation? No camera can see that. Only a technician pressing on the tire or a road-force balancer can detect that.
The DOT date code. That's the killer feature. Most people buying a used car have no idea the tires might be 8 years old with plenty of tread left — and dangerously degraded. RV owners whose rigs sit for months at a time? Their tires are aging even when they're not moving. Fleet managers who need to track hundreds of tires? The age check alone makes this worth the scan.
Because tire sidewalls are black text on black rubber, often tucked inside a dark wheel well. Without the flash, AI gets a photo of darkness. We force the torch on so the DOT code and tire specs are actually legible. It's a small thing that makes the difference between a successful scan and a useless one.
— The Creator of TireOrNOT