System and method for bayesian inference in the characterization and prediction of vehicle tire wear

A system for estimating a tire wear status, comprising:

• a data storage device or network having stored thereon information regarding probability distributions corresponding to each of a respective plurality of tire wear factors;
• for each of a plurality of vehicles, distributed computing nodes linked to one or more vehicle-mounted sensors respectively configured to collect vehicle data;
• a centralized computing device or network comprising computer readable media having instructions residing thereon and executable by one or more processors, the centralized computing device or network configured to
• receive the vehicle data and the tire data collected in association with a particular vehicle,
• generate at least one observation corresponding to one or more of the plurality of factors based on the transmitted vehicle data, and
• provide a Bayesian estimation of a tire wear status at a given time for at least one tire associated with the particular vehicle, based at least on the at least one generated observation and the stored information regarding probability distributions.