That different perspective came from Broadfield – a former Director of Technology and serial inventor for Nokia. Thomas felt he would be the perfect business-partner, because of his uncanny ability to look at issues from outside ‘the fishbowl’ of traditional mechanical engineering.

Following a thorough investigation into the issue, Broadfield deduced that the way standard wheel rims attach to hubs was flawed. He argues wheels would be less inclined to detach if they were secured with a single central nut – much like on Formula One cars. But changing the design of every wheel on the road isn’t a reality. Instead, he set out to develop a unique safety product that would detect the early onset of a wheel loss event while the vehicle is in motion.

Existing solutions on the market such as brightly coloured indicator tags only detect potential wheel loss situations on stationary vehicles during a driver’s walkaround inspections; but wheels don’t detach when a vehicle is parked, and wheel nuts only start to loosen once a vehicle is underway.

Broadfield was determined to find the answer. For the first few years he concentrated on developing a solution, testing prototypes and obtaining global patent protection. After nearly a decade refining and miniaturising the original concept – as well as securing a series of complex, global patents – the first-generation product was launched onto the market at the end of 2018.

During its development, additional features were added – including an intelligent tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) to monitor for tyre under-inflation, fast leakage and internal air temperature, and also an on-board heat sensor that, due to its location next to the wheel rim and braking mechanism, could detect brake or hub issues involving low or high temperatures.