Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has struck a strategic collaboration to supply autonomous trucking services to a California-based self-driving truck company to help make the logistics industry more intelligent and connected.
Goodyear will supply its connected tires and other services to Plus (formerly Plus.ai), based in Cupertino, California, to help make semi-trucks powered by the California company's Level 4 autonomous driving technology more efficient and safe, as well as to reduce their carbon impact, the Akron, Ohio, tire maker said in a press release.
Goodyear and Plus will explore how Plus's autonomous driving system can use feedback from Goodyear's connected tires to help the California company's online, machine learning-based system boost fuel efficiency, and severe weather and extreme road condition performance for semi-trucks, Goodyear said.
Plus already is deploying its driver-in autonomous driving system, PlusDrive, to customers and is expected to start producing its FAW J7 L3 truck (First Automobile Works) powered by PlusDrive in the third quarter of 2021, Goodyear said.
Plus established a joint venture with FAW Group Corp., the Chinese state-owned automotive manufacturing company, in 2019, according to the California company's website.
Plus is "constantly exploring new opportunities to generate more value for customers using our autonomous driving technology," said Shawn Kerrigan, chief operating officer of Plus, in Goodyear's release.
Kerrigan is one of the serial entrepreneurs and artificial intelligence industry veterans who helped found Plus in 2016.
