Goodyear Proactive Solutions offers a suite of vehicle-to-fleet management operation solutions. Designed and developed in partnership with commercial fleet operators over the last two years, the business uses telematics and analytics to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs.
“Fleets have been customers of Goodyear as long as the company has existed. We know their needs and their challenges, so this was a natural extension of the existing tire business. Today there is technology that enables us to give something beyond what we could have done in the past,” said Jean-Claude Kihn, president – Goodyear Europe, Middle-East and Africa.
Goodyear Proactive Solutions comprises two key business areas:
• Proactive Tyre, which offers a range of services including tire pressure, temperature and tread depth monitoring. These connected and fully automated solutions enable fleets to maximize tire performance and schedule maintenance.
• Proactive Fleet, focused on driver behavior and track and trace technology, which helps fleets to reduce fuel consumption and journey times while increasing safety.
Using specially developed computer algorithms and data derived from the company’s commercial tire and service business, clear and accurate reports are created to enable fleet operators to identify and resolve tire-related and potential safety issues before they happen.
The solution works with both Goodyear technology and third-party systems, as Kihn noted, “There are many companies with technology that is interesting to us, so why not collaborate with them. We have an open innovation team which scouts the world for potential technologies and that provides us with two advantages.
“It means that we are able to find a solution when we have a problem. On the other hand, sometimes companies come to us with a solution, which gives us additional ideas or concepts that we had not thought about.”
The solution currently focuses on air pressure monitoring and driver behavior, however Kihn added that there are “numerous opportunities to develop the algorithms further” for measurement of other important parameters.
In the future, intelligent tires will be interconnected with the whole vehicle and road, and able to detect and adapt to weather and environmental conditions accordingly.
More on tire sensors in the November issue of Tire Technology International.
December 1, 2016
