Plus adds Goodyear connected tire tech to boost fuel efficiency
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is collaborating with Plus, a maker of SAE Level 4 autonomous truck technology, to provide logistics customers more intelligent and connected tire solutions and ideally reveal fuel efficiency and emissions benefits.
Through this relationship, Goodyear will explore how its suite of services, including connected tires, will work in tandem with Plus’s online, machine learning-based fuel optimization, to further improve fuel economy. According to Cupertino, California-based Plus, its algorithm optimizes onboard systems to become at a minimum 10% more fuel efficient.
Integrating Goodyear’s intelligent tires with Plus’s autonomous driving system may also improve overall vehicle performance in severe weather and extreme road conditions, Goodyear said.
“We are constantly exploring new opportunities to generate more value for customers using our autonomous driving technology,” said Shawn Kerrigan, COO and Co-founder of Plus. “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.”
Plus, founded in 2016 as Plus.ai, has already deployed its driver-in autonomous driving solution, PlusDrive, to customers and is expected to start production of the FAW J7 L3 truck powered by PlusDrive in the third quarter of 2021.
Under SAE J3016, Level 4 driving automation allows the truck to drive itself, freeing the driver up to do other tasks, unless certain conditions are not met. The plus solution employs multimodal sensor fusion, visual algorithms, and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technologies.
In 2019, Plus completed a 2,800-mile trek from California to Pennsylvania using its Level 4 solution. Hauling 20 tons of butter for Land O’Lakes, the Plus truck completed the journey in three days, passing through various terrain and weather across Interstates 15 and 70. An engineer and safety driver were present in the cab.
Goodyear has previously worked with autonomous truck company TuSimple, conducting wear studies to better predict maintenance intervals and total cost of ownership.
“Tires 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.”
