American multinational tyre manufacturing company Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is collaborating with Tesloop Inc. to use data generated by the city-to-city car sharing service and use it to study and model tyre performance.
Since its launch in July 2015, Tesloop has been offering a long-distance shared car transportation service for distances between 50 and 300 miles using its expanding fleet of semi-autonomous Tesla electric vehicles. It has also been collecting data at a rate now approaching 20,000 miles per month on each vehicle.
Running exclusively on Goodyear tyres, the Tesloop’s first vehicle in service, a 2015 Tesla Model S, is passing the 250,000 mile mark.
“Leveraging our deep knowledge and experience in tyre design, testing and fleet operations, our goal is to ensure that we can offer the most innovative range of tyre-related technologies and services for the next generation of connected passenger mobility fleets,” said Jim Euchner, vice president of global innovation at Goodyear.
Rahul Sonnad, Tesloop CEO, believes that all leading passenger mobility services will make use of autonomous, electric, supercharged vehicle platforms over the next few years. “This will drastically lower the cost of car transportation, increase miles driven and enable cars to run nearly 24 hours every day,” he said.
Upcoming technology activities will focus on creating and validating predictive models for tyre wear using cloud-based machine learning and predictive analytics systems. A further goal is to create data-driven triggers to optimise tyre maintenance procedures.
“At Goodyear, we know that the ability to gather real-time information about the road, driving conditions, and driving patterns will play an increasing role in optimising tyre performance for autonomous vehicles,” said Euchner. “With increasing amounts of data being compiled from an array of vehicle sensors as well as internet data sources, there is an unprecedented opportunity to create a new real-time digital framework that may enhance both safety and range, while lowering operational costs.”
“With the advent of the autonomous, connected, electric car, the automobile is undergoing its most transformative upgrade of the last 100 years,” said Sonnad. “More than just cars, our vehicles are effectively nodes on a deeply-digital electric transportation network. And in this world, tyres are by far the most important ongoing maintenance cost factor.”