Goodyear and Gatik AI, Inc. announced the expansion of their integration of tire intelligence technology into an autonomous driving system.
Gatik is working on an autonomous fleet consisting of Class 3–7 box trucks, and the company says its goal is to enhance the safety, accuracy and overall performance of autonomous vehicles.
As part of this partnership, Gatik will equip the fleet’s Goodyear Endurance RSA tires with Goodyear SightLine technology, the company’s tire intelligence solution, which Goodyear says will help Gatik to advance the safety and overall accuracy of its efficient fleet operations. This year, Gatik plans to implement the intelligent tire solution into a significant portion of its autonomous fleet across the U.S. and Canada.
“Being the vehicle’s only contact point to the road, the tire can play a pivotal role in enabling the vehicle to react like a driver would,” said Chris Helsel, senior vice president of global operations and chief technology officer at Goodyear. “By providing real-time insights through intelligent tire data, we can support Gatik’s autonomous driving system to become even more safe, reliable and efficient.”
Through on-road testing in a wide variety of challenging real-world driving scenarios, tire intelligence data regarding road conditions and tire health have helped Gatik advance its AV controllers with insights about accurate cornering and braking stiffness, rolling resistance and tire load, the companies said. This data, which is communicated between Goodyear SightLine technology and Gatik’s autonomous driving system through a real-time feedback loop, has given Gatik’s fleet the ability to adapt to a variety of road conditions, even when the mass or payload of the truck varies by delivery, the companies added.
“The real-time data derived from intelligent tire technology not only enhances the safety and predictability of our autonomous vehicles, but also enables us to maintain high levels of efficiency, reliability and delivery uptime throughout our operations,” said Gautam Narang, Gatik CEO and co-founder.
The companies have partnered to conduct testing at Goodyear’s Proving Grounds in San Angelo, Texas. Goodyear and Gatik also have plans to incorporate Goodyear’s advanced predictive road condition monitoring solution into Gatik’s autonomous driving system in the future.
