AKRON, Ohio, Jan. 09, 2024 – The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and Gatik (Gatik AI, Inc.) announced the expansion of the industry’s first, successful integration of tire intelligence technology into an autonomous driving system.
Gatik’s autonomous fleet consists of Class 3–7 box trucks. It has made significant strides in enhancing the safety, accuracy, and overall performance of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Equipping the fleet’s Goodyear Endurance® RSA® tires with Goodyear SightLine technology, the company’s comprehensive tire intelligence solution, enables Gatik to advance the safety and overall accuracy of its efficient fleet operations, while also improving delivery uptime and reliability. This year, Gatik plans to implement the intelligent tire solution into a significant portion of its autonomous fleet. The implementation will cover operations across the U.S. and Canada.
“The tire is the vehicle’s only contact point to the road. It can play a pivotal role in enabling the vehicle to react like a driver would,” said Chris Helsel, senior vice president, Global Operations and Chief Technology Officer, Goodyear. “Gatik is revolutionizing the autonomous technology space. 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 extensive on-road testing in a wide variety of challenging real-world driving scenarios, Gatik has gathered tire intelligence data. This data pertains to road conditions and tire health, providing insights for advancing its AV controllers. Specifically, the information aids in understanding accurate cornering and braking stiffness, rolling resistance, and tire load. The data is communicated between Goodyear SightLine technology and Gatik’s autonomous driving system through a real-time feedback loop. This communication has enabled Gatik to yield numerous performance enhancements. These enhancements include the ability to adapt swiftly and safely to a variety of road conditions, even when the mass or payload of the truck varies by delivery.
“The groundbreaking integration of Goodyear SightLine technology into Gatik’s autonomous fleet is a first in the industry. Real-time data derived from intelligent tire technology enhances the safety and predictability of our autonomous vehicles. It also enables us to maintain high levels of efficiency, reliability, and delivery uptime. This is applicable throughout our operations,” said Gautam Narang, Gatik CEO and Co-founder. “Our partnership with Goodyear is another step in advancing Gatik’s leadership in autonomous technology. This underscores our commitment to ensuring that the true advantages of B2B middle mile logistics are brought to market.”
The companies have partnered to conduct ongoing, rigorous testing at Goodyear’s San Angelo, Texas, Proving Grounds. Gatik achieves extensive testing of its autonomous vehicles through collaboration. Moreover, the testing occurs in a secure, closed course environment, covering common and unusual road scenarios. This also includes traffic lights, road signs, evasive maneuvers, tight turns, collision avoidance, precise lane keeping, and minimum risk stopping distances.
Goodyear and Gatik have future plans to incorporate Goodyear’s advanced predictive road condition monitoring solution into Gatik’s autonomous driving system. Moreover, this integration will enable Gatik to strategically plan its operations, ensuring a consistent and reliable movement of goods for Gatik’s diverse customer base, encompassing the nation’s largest grocers, retailers, distributors, e-commerce platforms and CPG companies.
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