Sr. Manager, OE Automotive Engineering

Hankook Tire America Corp

Biography

Dr. Madhu Rao is the Senior Technical Manager at Hankook Tire’s OE Office in Detroit, where he serves as the primary liaison with major OEMs, driving the development and industrialization of Hankook’s tire technologies. Prior to joining Hankook, Dr. Rao led the development and integration of tires and tire-mounted sensors into Tesla vehicles, successfully deploying the groundbreaking “Connected Tire System” across thousands of vehicles.

Before his time at Tesla, Dr. Rao directed global technical teams at Goodyear’s Innovation Center in Luxembourg, where he led the development of innovative testing and modeling methodologies to evaluate tire performance before launching them into production. He also spearheaded the creation of Goodyear Connected Tire Products for Light Commercial Vehicles.

Dr. Rao holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and has authored numerous publications and patents in the areas of experimental mechanics, optical metrology, and tire health monitoring. He has also served on the Board of Directors for the Tire Society.