Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and SafeAI, a pioneer in the field of autonomous heavy equipment, have announced a strategic relationship to incorporate tyre intelligence into the programming of autonomous heavy equipment vehicles
By integrating with the SafeAI Autonomous Ecosystem, companies will exchange site data to protect tire health, eliminate downtime and contribute to a smarter, safer construction industry standard.
With this collaboration, Goodyear will equip the Caterpillar 725, which is retrofitted with SafeAI’s stand-alone software, to capture pressure and temperature data and monitor overall tyre health. These sensors can identify and communicate adverse conditions before they cause problems with maintenance and the project’s derailment.
Traditional construction and mining sites are rife with inefficiencies, fuelled in large part by costly unplanned downtime rates as high as 20-30%, resulting in missed timelines and increased budget – and COVID-19 is exacerbating these challenges. Tyre intelligence can help mitigate these challenges by identifying early or potential problems, such as inflation, before they cause unexpected delays – boosting efficiency, safety and return on investment.
“No matter the vehicle – automobile, freight truck or dump truck – tyre intelligence can help elevate safety, performance and efficiency,” said Chris Helsel, Goodyear senior vice-president and chief technology officer. “Through our work with SafeAI, we will not only empower site operators with greater visibility and efficiency, but also gain invaluable performance data to inform our future innovation in autonomy and heavy equipment.”
Bibrajit Halder, founder and CEO at SafeAI, said, “At SafeAI, we strongly believe in a collaborative approach to deploying autonomy in construction and mining, at scale. We have purpose-built an interoperable autonomous technology that enables us to work with industry leaders like Goodyear and set the standard for autonomous heavy equipment.”
