Goodyear steps up intelligent tire efforts 

Akron, Ohio – Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is stepping up its intelligent tire efforts through a number of strategic partnerships announced earlier this month.

In Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg, Goodyear is collaborating with all-digital, all-electric car rental company UFODrive, to enhance the company’s fleet performance.

As part of the project, the partners will aim to integrate Goodyear’s intelligent tire monitoring system with UFODrive’s advanced eMobility software as a service platform, Goodyear announced 23 March.

The two companies will also conduct studies to optimise vehicle utilisation and servicing in order to enhance energy usage, reduce tire replacement costs.

The collaboration will expand Goodyear’s “total mobility fleet solutions” from commercial truck and bus business to the EV passenger fleet landscape, according to Hakan Bayman, president of Goodyear’s consumer business in Europe. 

“We anticipate overall demand for shared mobility services to continue growing in the coming years, with a particular emphasis on contactless solutions,” he said.

Launched in 2019, Goodyear total mobility is an end-to-end fleet service which covers tires and a range of data-driven monitoring and predictive analytics solutions provided to fleet operators.

Founded in 2018, UFODrive currently operates all-electric vehicle fleets across 17 locations in eight European countries.

Separately, the US tire maker is also collaborating with Voyomotive, a San Francisco-based connected car technology company, to pilot tire monitoring systems for more efficient operation of vehicles.

As part of the project, the partners will capture and analyse relevant tire performance data to detect slow loss of tire pressure “multiple days before the TPMS light illuminates and pending low tire pressure conditions,” Goodyear announced 18 March. 

Using real-time vehicle data provided by Voyomotive telematics controllers, information is processed by Goodyear analytics to create tire pressure loss and pressure alerts that are sent to customers via the Voyomotive app, SMS messages or to a fleet management system.

The solution, Goodyear maintains, will allow customers to proactively correct identified anomalies and establish optimal tire inflation.

The service is currently being provided to Voyomotive consumer and fleet customers, according to Goodyear.

“The safe and efficient operation of consumer vehicles and fleets is important both for today and for the future of mobility,” said John Brainerd, manager of Goodyear’s Akron innovation lab. 

“Goodyear continues to develop and expand our portfolio of digital tire information to help users realise this goal,” he added.