Goodyear Collaborates with Plus on Autonomous Trucks

August 23, 2021

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has announced a strategic collaboration with Plus (formerly Plus.ai), which develops self-driving truck technology, to provide optimized, autonomous trucking solutions that “elevate the intelligent and connected transformation of the logistics industry.”

Through the collaboration, Goodyear’s suite of services, including connected tires, will be utilized for semi-trucks powered by Plus’ Level 4 autonomous driving technology, while also reducing carbon impact. The two companies will also explore how Plus’ autonomous driving system can incorporate feedback from Goodyear’s connected tires into Plus’ online, machine learning-based fuel economy efficiency, to further improve fuel economy. Goodyear said its intelligent tires can also improve a vehicle’s overall performance in severe weather and extreme road conditions.

Plus said it is already deploying its driver-in autonomous driving solution, PlusDrive, to customers, and is expected to start production of the FAW J7 L3 truck (First Automobile Works) powered by PlusDrive in Q3 2021.

“Tires are the only thing on a vehicle that touches the ground and it’s this critical position that can help us enable future mobility solutions like autonomous transportation,” said Chris Helsel, senior vice president of global operations and CTO of Goodyear. “With our leadership in products and innovation, Goodyear is supporting efficient fleet operations and is pleased to drive more possibilities for the logistics industry with Plus.”

“We are constantly exploring new opportunities to generate more value for customers using our autonomous driving technology,” said Shawn Kerrigan, COO and co-founder of Plus. “The collaboration between Plus and Goodyear enables us to leverage both companies’ innovative fuel efficiency technologies, and harness these to further improve the performance of autonomous trucks.”