Tire-making big Bridgestone has taken a minority stake in Kodiak Robotics, the Silicon Valley-based startup creating autonomous vehicles, as a part of a broader partnership to check and develop good tire know-how.
Whereas the phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed, Kodiak Robotics co-founder and CEO Don Burnette informed TechCrunch that it is a direct monetary funding. Bridgestone CTO Nizar Trigui has additionally joined the Kodiak board as an observer.
The deal entails greater than capital. The 2 corporations have additionally shaped a strategic partnership targeted on advancing Bridgestone’s tire tech and fleet administration system. Kodiak will use Bridgestone’s sensor-laden tires and fleet administration system on its self-driving vehicles, that are used to hold freight between Dallas and Houston as a part of its testing program. The corporate lately mentioned it’s increasing its freight carrying pilots to San Antonio. Kodiak additionally exams its self-driving vehicles — all the time with a security operator behind the wheel — in and round Mountain View, California.
Semi-trucks journey 100,000 to 150,000 miles a 12 months, Burnette mentioned, including that tire integrity and tire monitoring are integral to the protection of trucking, whether or not they’re pushed by a human or laptop.
“Security of an autonomy system in the end comes right down to our capability to control the tires that contact the street when you find yourself accelerating or braking or steering,” Burnette mentioned. “You want to have the ability to depend on your tires to truly carry out the way in which they’re anticipated to carry out, in any other case your security envelope isn’t essentially assured.”
Kodiak will use these good tires to watch strain, temperature and even measure the masses on the wheels, which performs a job in automobile dynamics and maneuverability. Kodiak will share the information it collects with Bridgestone, which the corporate can use to enhance the chemistry of its tires.
Tire corporations like Bridgestone already gather fundamental data from telematics suppliers that helps decide the place vehicles are pushed, what forms of roads they use in addition to tire strain and temperature. Predictive fashions are then developed primarily based on that information. Autonomous automobile corporations deliver an added worth to tire corporations, Burnette famous. Kodiak’s self-driving vehicles are loaded with sensors of their very own, which permits the corporate to gather large quantities of driving information that may assist Bridgestone perceive precisely how its tires are getting used.
“Autonomy suppliers like Kodiak have the entire uncooked information particularly on how the vehicles are being pushed,” he mentioned. “We all know what the forces are, we all know what the steering is, we all know what the braking pressures that had been being commanded in actual time. And so we are able to collect a wealth of knowledge that has by no means been beforehand attainable to gather for corporations like Bridgestone.”
This permits Bridgestone to construct predictive fashions that can extra precisely be capable of predict the eventual lifetime and likewise probably give warnings to when tires could fail out of area. “And that’s in the end what Kodiak is basically thinking about,” Burnette added.
The information follows Kodiak’s announcement in Could that it was partnering with South Korean conglomerate SK to discover the opportunity of deploying its autonomous automobile know-how in Asia. The last word goal of the SK partnership is to promote and distribute Kodiak’s self-driving know-how within the area. Kodiak will study the way it can use SK’s merchandise, parts and know-how for its autonomous system, together with synthetic intelligence microprocessors and superior emergency braking methods. Each corporations have additionally agreed to work collectively to offer fleet administration providers for patrons in Asia.
