Cars have evolved to be more akin to computers based on the software and systems that go into modern manufacturing. At CES 2024 (Consumer Electronics Show), smart technology and autonomous driving infrastructures have commanded narratives of the next generation of auto tech.
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (GT) is putting a tech spin onto traditional tires with a new line of "intelligent tires."
Yahoo Finance's Akiko Fujita is joined by Goodyear CEO and President Rich Kramer at CES 2024 to discuss the tire manufacturer's smart tire technology, including its goals for implementing it for self-driving vehicles.
"What's happening at the base of the road and the tire, taking all that information and bringing it back to vehicle driving systems to improve the safety and performance of those vehicles," Kramer explains. "Essentially, make them safer and have them perform better on whatever use case they're in."
Click here to view more of Yahoo Finance's coverage of CES 2024 this week, or you can watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live here.
Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Video Transcript
AKIKO FUJITA: I'm Akiko Fujita, on the ground here in Las Vegas at CES 2024. What we're talking about-- intelligent tires. We've got Rich Kramer here, the CEO and President of Goodyear, in front of this great display here. I mean, you've got so many tires here. But let's talk about Goodyear sight. This is something that you introduced a few years ago.
RICH KRAMER: Correct.
AKIKO FUJITA: Intelligent tires. How does it work?
RICH KRAMER: So-- excuse me. And by the way, thanks for having us. And it's great to be here. Great to have you at our booth here today. So, intelligent tires are really about taking all the information that we can get out of that tire, and bring it into the vehicle driving systems. And the way we think about it is we look at how mobility is changing today.
We're really moving from what's been sort of a hardware-centric vehicle to a software-based vehicle, where we have essentially a software-centric vehicle that's, really, an electric device on wheels that gets you to a software-defined vehicle, where functions and all the features are essentially coming from a software-based solution. We're taking that same thing and creating a software-defined tire, if you will.
And what we do by getting the tire characteristics and the road characteristics, using some proprietary data we have around the tires, using sensors, and using sensors to take road conditions, we're able to amalgamate that information and measure both tire-- excuse me, the temperature and pressure of a tire, but also wear and load, and ultimately, friction, or in other words, what's happening at the base of the road and the tire, taking all that information and bringing it back to vehicle driving systems to improve the safety and performance of those vehicles. Essentially, make them safer and have them perform better on whatever use case they're in.
AKIKO FUJITA: So we're talking about communication between the tire itself, the system in there and the car.
RICH KRAMER: Exactly.
AKIKO FUJITA: When you talk about safety, specifically, what are we talking about? Is it about the tire pressure that you mentioned, is it about letting the vehicle know about the road conditions so they know to stop earlier?
RICH KRAMER: Well, exactly. And maybe one of the best demonstrations of that is one of the things we announced was work that we're doing with TNO into their ABS brake systems. And what we've demonstrated in there, by providing that tire intelligence into those ABS braking systems, we can actually show the vehicle stopping at around 6 feet more than it otherwise would. And that's, really, because as you said, bringing that information, that real-time information into those vehicle driving systems.
So for instance, if the tire is worn, if it's overloaded, if it's underinflated, and it's on a wet road, we can assess that real time, and then bring that into the vehicle driving systems to make that vehicle stop or perform more optimally than if those systems sought-- thought that the tire was actually brand new.
AKIKO FUJITA: So we've got you-- right behind you, this truck, yeah? This is a partner of Goodyear. A fully self-driving--
RICH KRAMER: Correct.
AKIKO FUJITA: --truck for the middle mile, which in many ways is the most important right?
RICH KRAMER: Exactly.
AKIKO FUJITA: Can you talk to me about how that intelligent tire communicates with a truck with no driver in it?
RICH KRAMER: Well. It's probably the best example that we have. Because when there is a driver, obviously, the driver can compensate for some of those conditions. But when there is no driver, as you mentioned in Gatik, we can actually take that-- we take that information and actually advise directly those driving systems. So it does everything I mentioned earlier.
But, what's even more important for a company like Gatik, as they expand their business, we can improve their cost per mile. We can improve their uptime as they do those deliveries. And what intelligence can do for them-- intelligent tire can do for them, is increase their use cases. So not only can they operate in a sunny environment with dry pavement, but they can also operate now where the roads may be wet, where the roads may be icy, where there's snow on the roads.
And again, with no driver in the vehicle, the most important element that they're getting is what's happening on the road to advise those driving systems. That's what we can do for them. So it's a win-win for them in terms of their business model, in terms of safety, and in terms of their expansion.
