Tire condition sensor communication with tire location provided via vehicle-mounted identification units

A tire condition communication system for a vehicle that has a tire, said system comprising:

• sensor means, associated with the tire, for sensing at least one tire condition;
• memory means, associated with the tire, for holding an identification;
• transmitter means, associated with the tire and operatively connected to said sensor means and said memory means, for transmitting a signal that indicates the held identification and the sensed tire condition;
• receiver means, associated with the vehicle, for receiving the transmitted signal indicative of the held identification and the sensed tire condition;
• location identification means, located on the vehicle adjacent to the tire and having a location identification, for transmitting the location identification in response to a request;
• update request means for communicating the request to said location identification means to transmit the location identification;
• and
• identification update means, associated with the tire and operatively connected to said memory means, for receiving the transmitted location identification and for providing the received transmitted location identification to said memory means to be held as the held identification.

A method of providing tire condition communication for a vehicle that has a tire, said method comprising:

• associating a tire condition sensor unit with the tire;
• affixing an identification tag to the vehicle adjacent to the tire;
• sending an identification from the identification tag to the tire condition sensor unit;
• and
• sending a sensed condition signal from the tire condition sensor unit to a vehicle-based unit, the tire condition sensor unit receiving the identification from the identification tag, the sensed condition signal including the received identification.