All language subtitles for Tomorrows.World.Today.S07E05.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
On Tomorrow's World Today,
we explore the cutting-edge

advances that are shaping
four different worlds.

The world of inspiration,
where the wonders of

the natural world
amaze and inspire us.

The world of creation,
where ideas come to life from

traditional arts.

The world of innovation,
where ideas and inventions move

us all forward.

The world of production,
where innovations are

mass-produced to
improve our lives.

From Inventionland World
Headquarters,

here's your host,
George Davison.

Hi everybody,
I'm George Davison.

In the United States,
the history of tire shopping,

it's basically intertwined
with the evolution

of transportation.

You see, from the humble
beginnings of the automobile

industry in the late 19th
century, to the mass production

of vehicles in the early 20th
century, tire shopping was...

it was pretty straightforward.

However, as consumers
had more car choices,

they also had
more tire choices.

And now the drivers had more
vehicle types to choose from,

different driving conditions
to navigate,

and different
performance demands,

it basically left consumers
feeling overwhelmed

and uncertain about whether
they were buying the perfect

tire for
their specific vehicle.

Today, the tire shopping sector
is inventing game-changing

technology that creates
a better consumer experience.

And it's providing tires
that are safer

for your specific conditions.

So I'm sending
our field reporter, Greg,

to the world
of innovation.

It's down in San Antonio,
Texas, to explore

this phenomenon.

There are almost 300 million
registered vehicles on

the roads in the United States
right now.

From hundreds of manufacturers,
there are thousands of models,

but they all have
one thing in common.

They all need tires.

Now, as you can imagine,
with that many vehicles

and that many options,
choosing tires can be,

well, tiresome.

And that's why we're here,
to learn from the experts at

Discount Tire the innovative
way that they're taking

the guesswork out of choosing
the right tire for you.

Let's meet now with
David Ginsberg.

He is the Chief Corporate
and Strategy Officer

for Discount Tire.

-Hey, David.
-Great to meet you, Greg.

Great to meet you, too.

So, here to learn
all about Treadwell.

Now, this is really innovative,
and it's actually pretty

important, because the number of
options as far as tires go for

consumers has really exploded.

You're absolutely right,
Greg, and there's a few reasons

why that's happened.

Number 1 is you've got the tire
manufacturers looking for every

edge, making the tire
a big part of their design.

Secondly,
the electric vehicles.

Lots of torque, lots of
extra weight, tires need to

accommodate
that weight and that torque.

And then finally,
specialized categories.

You have all-terrain drivers,
mud-terrain drivers,

high-performance drivers,
and then, of course, weather

conditions, summer,
winter, all season.

The upshot of that is that in
2010, Discount Tire had about

5,000 options
for our customers.

In 2024, over 20,000 options
for our customers.

[Greg] Wow, so Treadwell's job
is basically to take

those 20,000 options

and boil them down to
the one recommendation that's

right for me.
-That's absolutely right.

But think about those 20,000
tires, and then you overlay

your personal preferences.

The combinations
and permutations can be

absolutely overwhelming.

They get into
the millions of options.

Treadwell, in a nutshell,
looks at who you are,

how you like to drive,
what you drive,

and where you drive,
and concisely pulls it all

together into one
recommendation that's best

for you, safety always being
the most important

aspect for us.
-Excellent.

Well, I think
this is a good opportunity

for us to head outside
and see how

the Treadwell process begins.
-Let's do it.

-David.
-Hi.

Hi, great to see you.

-You as well.
-How are you?

-Yeah, very well.
-Meet Greg.

-Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you, too, David.

So, walk me
through this process --

what are you working on?

So, right now, I'm doing a full
tire and wheel customer safety

inspection on the vehicle,
checking everything from

the center cap, lug nuts,
wheels, and tires, and when it

comes to the tires, we got
this awesome technology,

there's a laser on the back
of here that will scan

the tread depth on the inside,
middle, and outside.

Once I do that, I'll scan
the DOT, which is basically

a serial code on that tire.

If that serial code or DOT has
ever been flagged for a recall,

it'll let me know.

But more importantly,
it'll tell me the age of

the tire, which is super
important when it comes to

the safety for our customers.

Okay, so all that information
then is input to Treadwell,

and that's what helps you to
make the recommendation.

That's right.

Millions of inspections,
just like what David did,

are done across the country.

And then what we are able to do
is work out how long this tire

is going to last
in this location.

We combine that with
the data that we collect

at our test track,
how well the tire stops

in the wet,
how well it handles,

and that provides
the recommendation to find

the best tire for you.

[Greg] So every single tire
that comes in is scanned

and then becomes a part of

the Treadwell database,
so it's continually

being updated.

The database keeps on
building and expanding,

the algorithms keep on updating
and learning, and the beautiful

thing is that not only does it
help our customers, which is

our primary concern,
but our tire manufacturers
also learn how to

build better tires,
which ultimately benefits

all of us.
-Wow.

Well, how have the customers
been reacting to this?

Are they positive
about the experience?

Absolutely.

Everything's been great,
mainly because it takes away

from just mileage of the tire.

It goes into the ride quality,
how smooth and quiet it is,

how well it handles,
how well it stops.

So it really dives deeper into
what that tire can actually do

for you rather than just
get you from A to B.

All right,
well, I guess

at this point, I'm gonna
head out to the track

and meet up with John Baldwin
and see how your test

facility really works.
-Let's do it.

[Greg] Well, John, I got to go
out to one of the retail stores

and see the Treadwell program
in action, see how all that

data is put together to help
the consumer make the right

choice about a tire.

But this facility, this testing
facility, is actually where that

data is generated.

So tell me a little bit
about this location.

[John]
Texas is great for test tracks.

There are a lot of them here.

This particular location is
45 minutes south of San Antonio,

right off the freeway,
about 900 acres.

The weather's good, we can
test more days than we can't.

Generally speaking,
hot in the summer, cooler in

the winter, but we can find
time to test almost every day.

We don't do winter testing
here, obviously that's done in

another part of the country,
in Michigan.

Well, how do you test for
all the different weather

conditions given the fact that
the weather is that consistent?

On the track, we've got a large
wet pad where we can actually

wet the surface,
so we can do wet even if

it's the middle of summer.

We can also test at night
or during the day to vet for

the temperature variations.

We have a water truck that
we can go out and water dirt

or make a mud pit,
so we can simulate a lot of

the conditions that
our customers might see.

You obviously can't bring in
every kind of vehicle

that exists,
you can't bring in

every kind of tire
that's out there.

How do you take that data
and extrapolate it to give

the broader look
at the information?

Vehicles come in classes,
so if we pick out a couple of

representative vehicles for
that particular class, like say

a sports car or a pickup truck,
and they are actually good for

testing,
they're repeatable,

we can get good feedback
for the drivers,

that's how
we end up picking them,

and we can fit
different-size tires on there.

We don't have to stay with just
the original equipment size.

-We can vary within that.
-Take a typical set of tires.

How many different tests
would you put that through in

a typical day?

[John] So, generally, we test
about seven sets of tires a day,

maybe on three surfaces, so 20,
30 tests, and then it'll take

us two or three days, so 60
tests in general, and each tire

then we test for various
things like wet braking,

wet handling, then dry
handling, things like

on-center feel
or turn in.

We'll look for noise,
we'll look for harshness,

we'll look for just
general overall feel.

Some of that is subjective,
that the drivers actually

feed back to us.

You're not actually doing
the testing, you bring in

the third party testers so that
you actually have a real

honest evaluation.
-[John] That's correct.

The reason to have a test track
and have all of this sort of

objective management of
the data is so that we get

the true results.

No one at Discount Tire has
anything

to do with what
the results are.

We just get the data,
and then we report it to either

the manufacturers
or the customers

or actually both.
-Right, right.

Well, what's a, say a piece of
equipment like this, what is

this testing?
-So this is a traction rig.

So what we test for, this is
an objective way to measure how

tires perform in the wet.

The nice thing about this is
that you can compare one tire

to another tire on the rig at
the same time, or in this case,

we could actually use our tire
buffer that we have purchased

recently, and we can shave
the tire down to 4/32nds

tread depth, and then we can
compare what does a new tire

perform in the wet versus
a worn tire at 4/32nds.

Most people evaluate new tires,
they all look pretty good

in the wet.

4/32nds is really where
you start thinking about it

when you're gonna replace your
tires, what is the difference in

performance between
new and worn?

You're not only controlling
the weather, you're controlling

the wear of the tires, as well.

That's exactly right.
That's exactly right.

All right, well, I guess
at this point, the last thing

for us to do is get in a vehicle
and see how this all goes.

What are we gonna
actually test for today?

So, we're going to take a bit
of a sports car out,

and we're gonna go out
in the wet handling.

And what we're gonna do is
we're gonna test for various

high-speed maneuvers and, you
know, try not to lose control,

but you never know.
-[laughs]

Excellent.
Game on.

-Yes.
-Let's go.

So John, when you head out
onto the track like this,

you're really
evaluating the tire.

You're not evaluating
the vehicle or the driver.

Correct.
We try to control for that.

If you think about it,
we have a controlled tire.

We use
a controlled surface.

We have
a professional driver in a car

that we know very well.

So we can really isolate
for how the tire performs

and compare it
against other tires.

So how much water
is on this track right now?

So currently about 1 and 1/2
to 2 millimeters.

And that's really enough
at the right speed to

start hydroplaning.

[John] Easily, yeah, depending
on how fast you're going.

So hydroplaning depends
on speed as well.

[Greg] Well, as we go into these
turns, so you're not really

evaluating the turning radius
or any of those kinds

of measurements.

What you're really looking at
is the tire itself.

Is there any other
instrumentation on the vehicle

that's giving you numbers?

No, other than lap times,
it's really

the driver evaluation,
and they're trying to get feel.

They're trying to get a max lap
time, go as fast as

possible without
losing control.

But then they're also trying
to feel for things like

linearity and understeer.

All of the things that matter
in the dry matter in the wet,

just at a lower speed.

So this is really an example of
when that third-party tester

really shows its importance.

Like, you're getting all of
your data from the individual.

Absolutely.
It matters a lot.

These people
are very professional,

been doing it for decades.

Hundreds, thousands of tires
evaluated over time.

[Greg] So give me your spot
evaluation of the tires

that we're on right now.

[John] So the tires
that we're on right now

are high performance.

They really do shine in
the wet, and they are

very grippy.

You should feel very confident
on these particular tires.

Excellent.
All right, well, I think we've

run the track a few times.

Let's head over to
the pit stop.

Will do.

-Well, John, we survived.
-Yeah, we sure did.

So, now we've been
out on the track.

You've experienced the tires
that were on this car.

So when one of your
professional drivers is out

there, and they're bringing back
all that information to you,

how is that then input
to Treadwell?

Well, we were out there,
we talked about a couple

different aspects of tires.

They probably are looking at
15 to 20 plus their lap time.

So they take all of that,
they add it together,

and they come up with
a five-point rating system,

say like a three
and a half out of five.

That number is then put into
the Treadwell algorithm.

And that algorithm then uses
a lot of other data that we've

been talking about and then
comes up with a recommendation.

All right, well,
I'm gonna actually go

get one of those
recommendations for myself.

I'm heading back to
the store, and I'm gonna

experience the Treadwell
program for myself, so what do

you think the chances are I can
get behind the wheel this time?

-Not a chance.
-Fine, let's get on out of here.

[Greg]
While at the store.

I'm going to see how Treadwell
works at discounttire.com.

-Hey guys.
-Hey Greg.

Well, I survived the track with
John, I got to see how

your third-party testers,
your drivers, take all of

their experience out there

and then input that data
to Treadwell.

But now I think I'm ready to
see how this would work for

someone just like me.

Right, so what we're going to
do is we're going to say

where you drive.

That's the zip code
we've pre-installed.

We've got the vehicle
installed, what you drive,

and now we're gonna look at
how you like to drive.

So, for example, if we look at
the tire attributes, some of

these you might have
seen from the track.

For example,
stopping and traction would

have been a test you saw,
both dry stopping as well as

wet stopping.

Why don't we move steering
and precision up in priority

and now hit recommend, and you
can see that, in short order,

you get the rank
recommendations for you.

Now imagine we decide,
well that's not really who I am.

I'm doing a lot of
highway driving.

I care for a tire that's going
to last a little bit longer,

so I'm going to change
my persona to highway.

You'll see that the results
change immediately.

Great, and actually, when you do
this, the number-one

recommendation might not
necessarily be the most

expensive tire --
it's based on me.

That's right.

The recommendations are
totally independent of price.

Right,
and if we were

to change
the zip code and put me in,

say, a different part of
the country, those parameters

would all change again.
-You're exactly right.

Not only would the wear
of the tire change,

but also the weather conditions'
impact on what's the right tire

for you would change.
-Thank you both very much.

Right now,
I'm gonna find out about

the future
of Discount Tire.

I'm gonna head out to the bay
and meet up with Tom Williams.

-Hey, Tom.
-Hey, Greg, how are you?

I'm doing great.
Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

Well, Tom, I've been learning
today about Treadwell.

The real watchword
behind this whole system is

the customer experience.

Now, from what I understand,
when it comes to

customer experience,
you're the guy to talk to.

You've been with this company
for 38 years, and you started

out changing tires just like
these guys behind us.

So you've seen it all.

Tell me a little bit
about that evolution

of the tire industry
and your experience with that.

So the big change that's
happened all over the years is

the complexity of the vehicle.

With that complexity of
the vehicle has changed

the complexity of
the tire application.

So we've gone from
very few different sizes that

we basically work on across
many, many vehicles to where

it's many, many different types
of vehicles with many,

many different type
tire applications.

So that's been the big
transformation that's happened.

What has that done to
the customer experience?

I imagine with all of that
different information,

all the different options
available, the anxiety level

with buying tires has had
to go through the roof.

It's overwhelming, right?

So our customers today,
when they go to buy tires,

they tell us,
they feel outmatched.

They don't know
where to start.

They don't know what's
the right tire to fit for them.

They don't know what's
the right tire to fit

for the vehicle,
it's a big investment.

They're doing it once
every two, three years.

It's overwhelming for them.

And that's the feedback we get
all the time is like,

what do I do here?
What's the right thing for me?

And I guess Treadwell is a way
to simplify that so that people

don't feel overwhelmed
whenever they're trying to make

a tire choice.
-Yeah, and that's what's fun.

[Greg] So, you know, coming into
a Discount Tire location,

you're gonna be able to talk
with an expert about the tire

choices that will work for you,
where you live, how you drive,

and what your ultimate goal is
with that driving experience.

Yeah, that's what's
really cool about it.

Today, we can interact with
you and say, "Hey, let me show

you what this tire really does."

Based on our tire testing,
based on all real-world results

and tire data, we can take all
that information and give

you factual information about
a product and what it's gonna

do for you,
and that's changed

the game and how we can
engage with our consumers.

It's raised
the whole level for them.

And it's not just based on what
you might have in inventory

or what you need
to sell off that day.
-That's right.

It's really based around
their driving styles,

their driving habits,

and what's gonna
suit them in the future.

We don't want to just sit there
and just try to sell you

the most expensive tire.
That's the wrong thing to do.

And that's what most consumers
look at in this industry.

But today, we can take
this information and empower

you with data to make
an educated decision that's

gonna fit your budget
and your needs.

So Tom, as we look ahead,
one of the things that

consumers are faced with now is
people don't have time often to

come into the showroom,
talk with an expert,

and then maybe have to come
back the next day

and get their tires.

What is Discount Tire doing to
kind of look ahead at that?

Right now, we're working on
a new concept, and it's called

Pit Pass --
it's a new store model.

It's a true buy online,
drive down to the store and get

the product installed,
and that's things that we're

doing to deliver a better,
faster experience.

What we're seeing right now
is consumers making that

choice online,
they raise their hand.

They help make that selection
through Treadwell.

That product is then ordered
and shipped to the store.

When you arrive, you're out of
there roughly about 18 minutes

sometimes, so we're really
cutting the time down

end-to-end for the consumers,
almost in half sometimes.

[Greg]
That's the Pit Pass experience.

[Tom] That is the Pit Pass
experience, correct.

Well, Tom, I want to thank
you very much.

-Thanks, Greg.
-This has been really great.

I know you've got to get back
to Pittsburgh.

You're going to
be meeting up with George,

and I'm heading that way, too.
-All right.

-Why don't you show me out?
-Yep, let's go this way.

Hey, Tom, welcome
to Inventionland.

Good to see you George,
how you doing?

Good to see you too.

Hey, we had this big tire all
cleaned up and put up here.

-I heard you were coming
-Yep.

with some newfangled device.
-Uh-huh.

I'd love to hear more about it.

All right, so this is
our mobile device.

All of our associates
out there have it.

It allows us to go out
and capture the tread depth of

the tire with a laser,
so we can actually pull it

across the face of the tire.

That laser is capturing
the tread depth of the tire,

which then we can share that
with you to tell you

the condition of the tire
and how safe that tire

is gonna be able to stop your
vehicle in wet tire conditions.

So as tires wear,
they start new, they stop

very well in wet conditions.

As they wear down,
you can see it takes

longer to stop that car.

So what we want to do is
empower you with some

information about the condition
of your tire and how safe it is.

Well, you know what,
that's what I really care

about, my family's safety
on the road, and this tire's

a major part of that.

So this sounds like
great technology.

Where's it taking us
in the future?

Well, it's helping us be more
predictive of when you need to

replace those tires.

So each time you visit us
and we capture that tread depth,

and we can see how the tire's
wearing based on the miles

you're driving, we can then
predict when we think that

tire's gonna need to be
replaced to keep you safe

on the road.
-That's great technology.

Well, thanks
for coming in, Tom.

That's another episode of
Tomorrow's World Today.

Tune in for our next episode.

So Tom, I was thinking
more about the future

of where we were
headed with this.

And remember, tomorrow's world
is where inspiration

and creation drive innovation
and production.

See you next time.