The goal of the present study is to show how it is possible to estimate online the individual torques applied at each wheel of an automotive vehicle by using an unknown input observer together with a simple nonlinear state-space model. The necessary measurements are the steering angle, the usual rotation speed of each wheel plus the vertical load at the centre of each wheel. By doing this, this study anticipates the affordability of a new generation of wheel bearing with embedded measurements of transmitted forces. Successful simulated experimentations using a realistic simulator are shown. Validations are done using classical case studies of longitudinal, lateral and coupled dynamics. The present limits and some possible improvements of the proposed method are also discussed.