Michelin taps Thales technology to scale software business

Paris – Michelin has partnered with French technology group Thales to protect its intellectual property and expand global deployment of its software tools.

The collaboration supports Michelin’s shift towards software-driven revenue, allowing the company to license and manage software products through Thales’ 'Sentinel software monetisation platform'.

Sentinel enables centralised licence management and supports multiple deployment models depending on the application’s technical context or ecosystem, said Thales in a 23 April statement.

Among other products, the French tire & technology group aims to deploy its TameTire software through Sentinel.

TameTire allows car manufacturers and motorsports teams to simulate real-world tire performance to “a high level of accuracy.”

Using "complex algorithms", TameTire predicts tire behaviours in reaction to various forces, torques and temperatures to help manufacturers produce better-handling car models at reduced costs.

The software also allows motorsports teams to test and fine-tune their vehicle setups more conveniently.

Other Michelin software products include: Canopy, which provides laptime simulation, vehicle modelling and setup exploration "in record time", using cloud computing.

Michelin will also be offering its SiMiX software through Sentinel: an initiative that provides datasets for vehicle manufacturers, racing teams and automotive supply chain organisations covering components, such as tires, chassis and suspensions.

“Michelin’s innovative software is complex and proprietary," said Damien Bullot, VP software monetisation at Thales.

"We recognised their need for an agile licensing platform that was both easy to deploy and able to protect against IP theft,” he added.

Thales Sentinel, according to Bullot, manages “all Michelin’s software licensing under one solution that is fully compatible with Michelin’s infrastructure.”

Emphasising that Michelin was expanding its business to “software-led offerings,” Pierre-Yves Mauriere, product owner for TameTire, said the partnership ensured that group could protect its software IP.

In addition, Thale Sentinel offers a new subscription business model and scales Michelin’s license-based revenue stream, Mauriere continued.