Bridgestone investments taking tire, mobility to next level

AKRON—Bridgestone Americas Inc. is taking steps to further secure its place in the market, expand its business and become a sustainable solutions company.

And Bridgestone's transformation is focused on more than just selling a product. It's about helping the customer get the most out of that product throughout the ownership cycle.

"We already make great products that help the mobility industry move," Brian Goldstine, president of the mobility solutions and fleet management for Bridgestone, said in an email interview. "We do this through the use of data, insights and recommendations that can optimize the use of our tires, but even more importantly, extend the life of them and help our customers to optimize their operations."

To this end, Bridgestone is investing in and partnering with a trio of up-and-coming automotive technology companies—May Mobility, Yoshi and Tyrata.

"Each of these recent investments," Goldstine said, "point toward the same ultimate goal for Bridgestone—helping vehicle owners and fleet operators achieve safer, more efficient, more sustainable mobility.

"Whether we're looking at hundreds of Class 8 trucks that go through thousands of tires, a fleet of autonomous ride-sharing vehicles, or the vehicles that individuals own or ride in on a daily basis, it's all about being safe and sustainable while we're on the move," he said. "The data that these companies can provide Bridgestone—and in return, the services and solutions that Bridgestone can provide them—can get us all there more quickly."

The partnership with May Mobility will allow the autonomous technology company to integrate Bridgestone's data-driven smart tire technologies into its vehicles. Bridgestone, in turn, can expand its understanding of the AV market, offering insights into better solutions.

"The amount of data that moves through (an) autonomous vehicle is staggering," Goldstine said. "There is so much information that has to be accounted for in order for a computer to make safe decisions on the road.

"Bridgestone sees the opportunity to provide even more vehicle data and intelligence to those AI systems through tire-related insights such as pressure, temperature, tire wear, road conditions and more," Goldstine said, noting that it's "a perfect home for our smart sensing tires."

Ryan Green, chief financial officer for May Mobility, said in an email interview that his company is excited to partner with Bridgestone, which also is poised to provide May Mobility with additional resources through its 2,200-plus retail stores.

"Our relationship with Bridgestone will help us scale operations in the U.S.," Green said. "With their vehicle service expertise and footprint, we are able to de-emphasize these elements of our own business because we know we have a trusted partner.

" … Bridgestone's 2,200 stores nationwide, along with its mobile services, gives May Mobility an unmatched ability to scale nationwide. We plan to continue expanding operations in the U.S., building better AV transportation solutions and offering more equitable transportation to cities globally."

May Mobility believes that AVs will play a key role in making transportation more equitable, accessible and sustainable because they can bridge gaps in current transportation infrastructure and also allow for the re-envisioning of cities by making efficient use of highly prized land and eliminating parking structures to prioritize green spaces and districts that enrich our lives.

The company believes the U.S. market has the potential for the autonomous shared Mobility as a Service (MaaS) vehicle fleet to rapidly grow to hundreds of thousands of vehicles by the 2030s, including public transportation, ride-hailing, direct-response and other MaaS segments.

"At May Mobility, we're working to make the vision a reality with innovative AV technology that virtually imagines every situation every 20 milliseconds. Rather than relying on a rules-based system, May Mobility's Multi-Policy Decision Making platform can scale city-by-city faster because it is enabled to make decisions, rather than manually operationalizing rules or relying on machine-learning-based systems to relearn each new city," Green said.

Bridgestone's recent strategic investments also include partnering with Yoshi and Tyrata, companies making their marks in the mobile car care and tire monitoring spaces, respectively.

Yoshi focuses on car care services for consumer, fleet and corporate customers. The new partnership with Bridgestone will accelerate both companies' ability to meet the needs of car owners through the expansion of contactless vehicle-related services brought directly to customer's homes and workplaces.

The partnership also allows Bridgestone and Nashville, Tenn.-based Yoshi to explore joint service offerings, such as pairing Bridgestone's company-owned retail service network and Firestone Direct mobile tire and services solution with Yoshi's fleet of mobile service vehicles.

Yoshi's consumer offerings include on-site automotive refueling, car wash and detailing, oil changes, vehicle inspection and more.

"Yoshi brings vehicle services and inspections directly to the customer's door, and those inspections result in recommendations on how to keep your vehicle safe and healthy on the road," Goldstine said.

Tyrata, meanwhile, offers automated solutions for small- to medium-sized fleets to gauge tire tread depth and the health of tires. This information can be combined with other data to enable predictive maintenance that will complement Bridgestone's existing tire and fleet management solutions.

Tyrata uses a drive-over technology to measure tire tread, collect tire wear data and provides actionable, cloud-based analytics. This strategic investment accelerates Bridgestone's efforts to deploy advanced mobility solutions that improve fleet safety, efficiency and sustainability.

Tyrata technology will complement Bridgestone's existing portfolio of tire and fleet management solutions, including: IntelliTire, a commercial truck tire pressure monitoring system; Reach, a cloud-connected platform that manages fleet service events; and Azuga, a fleet management software system featuring GPS tracking, video telematics and driver behavior management.

"Tyrata is a great example of how we can support our truck and bus businesses through digital and cloud-connected recommendations for tire management," Goldstine said.

These three new partnerships represent just a few of the ways Bridgestone is strategically developing fully integrated solutions that will help create a more accessible and sustainable mobility ecosystem. The company is pursuing new business models aimed at accelerating the tire giant's transformation into a technology-driven, sustainable solutions company.

"All three companies focus on smart technology solutions that either work to improve vehicle service and management or can be made even stronger technological powerhouses for having Bridgestone on board. They're all three natural fits in their own way, but again, with a common mission for that safer, more efficient, more sustainable future," Goldstine said.