Goodyear has announced a strategic collaboration with Plus (formerly Plus.ai), a provider of self-driving truck technology, to provide ‘optimized, autonomous trucking solutions that elevate the intelligent and connected transformation of the logistics industry’.
Through this collaboration, Goodyear’s suite of services, including connected tyres, will further enhance transportation efficiency and safety for semi-trucks powered by Plus’s Level 4 autonomous driving technology while also reducing carbon impact.
Goodyear and Plus will explore how Plus’s autonomous driving system can incorporate feedback from Goodyear’s connected tyres into Plus’s online, machine learning-based fuel economy efficiency, to further improve fuel economy.
Integrating Goodyear’s intelligent tyres with Plus’s autonomous driving system can also improve a vehicle’s overall performance in severe weather and extreme road conditions.
Plus is already deploying its driver-in autonomous driving solution, PlusDrive, to customers and is expected to start production of the FAW J7 L3 truck (First Automobile Works) powered by PlusDrive in the third quarter of 2021.
“Tyres are the only thing on a vehicle that touches the ground and it’s this critical position that can help us enable future mobility solutions like autonomous transportation,” said Chris Helsel, SVP Global Operations & CTO of Goodyear. “With our leadership in products and innovation, Goodyear is supporting efficient fleet operations and is pleased to drive more possibilities for the logistics industry with Plus.”
Shawn Kerrigan, COO and Co-founder of Plus, said: “We are constantly exploring new opportunities to generate more value for customers using our autonomous driving technology. The collaboration between Plus and Goodyear enables us to leverage both companies’ innovative fuel efficiency technologies, and harness these to further improve the performance of autonomous trucks.”