Goodyear is partnering with Tesloop, a city-to-city Tesla ride service, by providing “intelligent tires” for data gathering on the company’s fleet of semi-autonomous vehicles.
The information on tire pressure and temperature will be added to Goodyear’s cloud-based algorithms to better predict when tire replacement and repair is needed. The data gathering from the wireless sensors aims to improve overall tire maintenance.
“We want to build the future, not just observe or read about it,” Chris Helsel, Goodyear’s chief technology officer, said in a press release. “As the new mobility ecosystem continues to take shape, we are taking steps to match the pace of technical change in the transportation industry and develop tire innovations that meet the intelligence of the vehicles riding on them.”
In addition to fitting Tesloop vehicles with the tires, Goodyear also plans to expand its mobile maintenance service to the vehicles, repairing Tesloop vehicles while they’re at charging stations.
“Goodyear is breaking new ground with the combination of fleet management expertise, intelligent products, and a vast service network to deliver complete solutions for the future of mobility,” Helsel said.
Tesloop is an excellent candidate for the tire and rubber company’s smart tires — Tesloop vehicles rack up nearly 17,000 miles each month. The vehicle with the highest mileage is a Model S with over 300,000 miles logged.
“When you are operating cars nearly 24/7/365, minimizing tire incidents is critical to the customer experience and business model,” Rahul Sonnad, Tesloop’s CEO, said in a press release. “The possibilities for data-driven tire diagnostics are remarkable and promise to help businesses like Tesloop operate more efficiently and make our vehicles the safest on the road.”
The two companies have been working in tandem since January to research and better understand how semi-autonomous technology can affect tires.
This isn’t Goodyear’s first analytics project. The tire company also runs a program for long-distance trucking where data gathering allows drivers to optimize fuel efficiency and repair tires before problems occur.