Gatik has announced a partnership with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, through which Goodyear’s tire intelligence technology will be integrated into its autonomous driving system.
Consisting of Class 3–7 box trucks, and equipped with Goodyear’s Endurance RSA tires, Gatik’s autonomous trucking fleet aims to deliver and enhance AV safety, accuracy, and performance. The partnership will see Goodyear’s SightLine technology integrated into the fleet’s tires to further advance the safety and accuracy of Gatik’s fleet, while improving delivery uptime and reliability. Gatik confirmed that it will look to integrate Sightline into a large portion of its autonomous fleet across the U.S. and Canada over the course of 2024.
Through extensive on-road testing across many real-world driving scenarios, tire intelligence data concerning road conditions and tire health helped Gatik gain insights on accurate cornering, braking stiffness, rolling resistance, and tire load that in turn advanced its AV controllers. Communicated between SightLine and Gatik’s autonomous driving system through a real-time feedback loop, this data further enabled Gatik to unlock performance enhancements – including the ability to adapt quickly and safely to a variety of road conditions, even when the mass or payload of the truck varies by delivery.
Another area of the partnership will see ongoing, rigorous, testing conducted at Goodyear’s Proving Grounds facility in San Angelo, TX. Here, Gatik will work to ensure that its AVs are thoroughly tested in a safe, closed course, environment accounting for common and unusual road scenarios such as traffic lights, road signs, evasive maneuvers, tight turns, collision avoidance, precise lane keeping, and minimum risk stopping distances.
In the long term, the companies plan for their partnership to extend to the integration of Goodyear’s advanced predictive road condition monitoring solution into Gatik’s autonomous driving system. For Gatik, this integration will support the planning of its operations, ensuring the consistent and reliable movement of goods for its customer base.
