| Goodyear and Gatik have joined forces to enhance the safety of autonomous trucks operating in Canada’s wintery conditions |
A major breakthrough for trucking technology was made this week as American tyre manufacturer Goodyear and California-based technology company Gatik demonstrated, in a proof-of-concept, that intelligent tires powered by its Goodyear SightLine technology can accurately estimate tyre-road friction potential and provide real-time information to Gatik’s automated driving system (ADS).
The companies say the capability will add more utility to what a tyre 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.
To get a sense for how the technology might work in a range of challening condirtions 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.
“The tyre 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,” says Chris Helsel, Goodyear’s senior vice president, Global Operations and Chief Technology Officer
“This is another step to evolve the tyre to not only deliver its core, traditional job but also be a nexus of new data and information.”
Friction estimates from Goodyear’s 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 winter climate.
With road-friction data, tires can help enable smoother, safer and more sustainable driving. Goodyear and Gatnik emphasises 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’s 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.
Goodyear says having this information in real-time enables Gatik’s fleet to respond safely and efficiently to challenging conditions within its operational design domain (ODD).
While Goodyear’s SightLine technology has future implications for autonomous driving, this year it is anticipated that Goodyear will also be deploying Goodyear SightLine technology on select original equipment vehicles bringing immediate utility to today’s mobility market.
Source: www.tradetrucks.com.au