PARIS—Stronger, smarter solutions have a starting point—a data point to be exact.
Put enough of the right data points together and the picture—a vision of a safer, more sustainable mobility future—becomes clear.
Michelin is piecing together that vision for safety and sustainability with help from 15,000 drivers and a network of global companies from a range of industries. With the Better Driving Community initiative, overseen by Michelin DDI (Driving Data to Intelligence), the tire maker aims to better understand driving behavior in an effort to build effective solutions around safety and new mobility.
"Leveraging data and collective intelligence is critical to make smarter, safer mobility a reality for everyone," Michelin DDI CEO Sophie Foucque said during a recorded presentation at the tire maker's Movin'On Summit. "This is why we launched the Better Driving Community, a unique data-driven ecosystem, relying on two complementary dimensions: a community of 15,000 drivers in France who benefit from a connected driving coach solution, and voluntary shared data that we aggregate and leverage to innovate."
To expand its understanding of the broader mobility picture, Michelin has partnered with BNP Paribas Cardif Group, CGI Group Inc. and Colas Group, which bring insights and expertise in finance/insurance, technology and road infrastructure, respectively. In the future, Michelin aims to further expand its data collection and analytics opportunities with partners from the energy and mobility services sectors.
Annette Trenz, CGI vice president of global industry lead manufacturing, said that the diversity of the partners and stakeholders involved in the Better Driving Community program is what gives the initiative its strength.
"It connects partners and industries that have never been linked before to create powerful, new opportunities that benefit from Michelin's 120 years (of) driving experience," Trenz said. "It forces everybody to see beyond their silos, to connect dots and to elevate the whole value chain. This is exactly what we are doing in the Better Driving Community, and in doing so, we are driving the future."
The breadth of the data available, seen through the perspectives of each mobility stakeholder, offers greater insights into the key components needed to build next-generation infrastructure, technology and vehicles.
Understanding how drivers interact with their vehicles and understanding how to build better infrastructure around their driving habits ultimately can lead to safer roadways, an outcome that is a major focus for the Better Driving Community initiative.
Michael De Toldi, chief analytics officer for BNP Paribas Cardif, sees artificial intelligence as a viable safety solution for future mobility. Building that requires lots of data, which underscores the role of the Better Driving Community.
"Artificial intelligence is playing a key role in risk prevention and we are proud to be part of the Better Driving Community to leverage our expertise in analytics and to help promote road safety," he said.
Fabrice Luriot, director of Mobility by Colas, noted that predictive maintenance is a practical application of artificial intelligence. The right data, with the correct analysis, can be leveraged to build more accurate predictive maintenance systems.
"Through the partnership, we are striving to prevent accidents (by) using data," Luriot said. "For instance, predicting when the car part would need to be replaced and replacing it before it fails would really help reduce accidents."
As the auto industry moves swiftly toward electrified, connected and autonomous vehicles, the insights gleaned from analyzing large swaths of data becomes more important, Trenz said. That, she said, makes Michelin's Better Driving Community critical, too.
"The automotive industry is currently undergoing big transformations: connected cars, autonomous driving, shared mobility and electrification," Trenz said. "And to leverage all of these upcoming opportunities depends heavily on data. High quality data will be key to drive even more opportunities for future growth."