In an important step towards safer and more sustainable goods movement through autonomous transportation, Goodyear Tire & Rubber and Gatik have demonstrated in a proof of concept that intelligent tires powered by Goodyear SightLine technology can accurately estimate tire-road friction potential and provide real-time information to Gatik’s automated driving system (ADS). A first in the industry, the breakthrough will add more utility to what a tire can deliver by providing critical data that can help enhance vehicle safety and performance, increasing efficiency and value for Gatik’s customers in the B2B short-haul market.
In 2022, Gatik made history with the first fully driverless commercial operations in Canada, deploying its fleet for Loblaw in the Greater Toronto Area. Goodyear and Gatik recently deployed road-friction detection capabilities in Canada through continuous measurement of tire sensor-derived information, which is paired with other vehicle data and connected to Goodyear’s cloud-based proprietary algorithms to optimize vehicle performance. Friction estimates from Goodyear SightLine solution were successfully able to detect low grip conditions, such as snowy or icy conditions, and make this information available to Gatik’s autonomous fleet, enhancing safety and performance for Gatik’s commercial operations in Canada’s challenging winter climate.
Road-friction data tires can help enable smoother, safer, and more sustainable driving. This is critical information for autonomous vehicles in terms of path planning and providing recommendations for safe driving speed, vehicle acceleration limits, and vehicle following distance.
Goodyear SightLine technology is designed to measure the tire wear state, load, inflation pressure, and temperature. It combines that with real-time road-weather data and proprietary rubber friction models to estimate the tire-road friction potential. Having this information in real-time enables Gatik’s fleet to safely and efficiently respond to challenging conditions within its operational design domain (ODD). While Goodyear’s SightLine technology has tremendous future implications for autonomous driving, this year it will also be deployed on select original equipment vehicles bringing immediate utility to today’s mobility market.
“The tire is the only part of the vehicle that touches the ground, and this new level of data sophistication can communicate vital information to the vehicle, enhancing safety and performance,” said Chris Helsel, Goodyear’s senior vice president Global Operations and Chief Technology Officer. “This is another step to evolve the tire to not only deliver its core, traditional job but also be a nexus of new data and information.”
“At Gatik, we’re dedicated to providing our customers with a solution that continues to raise industry standards in safety, efficiency, and performance,” said Arjun Narang, Gatik’s Chief Technology Officer and co-founder. “Using Goodyear’s groundbreaking SightLine technology helps us to operationalize these principles and ensures that we’re delivering greater value and enhancing safety on the middle mile today.”
