The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and SafeAI, a pioneer in autonomous heavy equipment, today announced a strategic relationship to incorporate tire intelligence into the programming of autonomous heavy equipment vehicles.
Through an integration with the SafeAI autonomous ecosystem, the companies will exchange site data to protect tire health, eliminate downtime and contribute to a smarter, safer standard for the construction industry. Tire intelligence from Goodyear's Tire Pressure Monitor Systems (TPMS) Heavy Duty rim-mounted sensors will be deployed at an active construction site in Cupertino, Calif.
With this collaboration, Goodyear will outfit a Caterpillar 725, retrofitted with SafeAI's autonomous software, to capture pressure and temperature data and monitor overall tire health. These sensors can identify and communicate adverse conditions before they cause maintenance issues and derail a project.
Traditional construction and mining sites have inefficiencies, fueled in large by costly unplanned downtime rates as high as 20-30 percent, resulting in missed timelines and increased budget — and COVID-19 is exacerbating these challenges. Tire intelligence can help mitigate these challenges by identifying early or potential problems, such as underinflation, before they cause unexpected delays — bolstering efficiency, safety and return on investment.
"No matter the vehicle — automobile, freight truck or dump truck — tire intelligence can help elevate safety, performance and efficiency," said Chris Helsel, Goodyear senior vice president and chief technology officer. "Through our work with SafeAI, we will not only empower site operators with greater visibility and efficiency, but also gain invaluable performance data to inform our future innovation in autonomy and heavy equipment."
"Goodyear has been at the forefront of tire innovation for more than one hundred years. Today, we're proud to join forces to take on a new frontier — tire intelligence for autonomous heavy equipment," said Bibrajit Halder, founder & chief executive officer at SafeAI. "At SafeAI, we strongly believe in a collaborative approach to deploying autonomy in construction and mining, at scale. We have purpose-built an interoperable autonomous technology that enables us to work with industry leaders like Goodyear and set the standard for autonomous heavy equipment."
