Leading tire manufacturer Bridgestone Corporation has reportedly acquired a minority stake in May Mobility, a Michigan-based autonomous shuttle firm.

This marks Bridgestone’s latest investment into an autonomous vehicle firm. Previously, the company partnered with Einride, a Swedish autonomous freight tech startup, to explore sustainable mobility solutions for autonomous, electrified trucking. The Japanese multinational also acquired a minority stake in autonomous trucking startup Kodiak Robotics.

Bridgestone’s collaboration with May Mobility will enable the AV firm to integrate the technology of predictive tire wear modeling offered by the tire maker into its vehicles later in 2022.

According to a credible source from May Mobility, the predictive algorithms and in-wheel sensors of Bridgestone monitor tire health including tire temperature, pressure, and tread wear, which will eventually help May Mobility in reducing the overall cost of AV ownership and enhance fleet safety.

Through this consolidation, Bridgestone will gain information into AV operations to enhance its core product lineup.

Brian Goldstine, the President of Mobility Solutions and Fleet Management for Bridgestone Americas stated that the company plans to integrate Bridgestone’s portfolio of predictive maintenance insights to ensure the operational efficiency, safety, and sustainability of May Mobility vehicles.

In addition, May Mobility also anticipates the enhancement of business performance by using Azuga, the cloud-based fleet mobility solution offered by Bridgestone, which the company acquired a year ago. Azuga brings features like camera intelligence, fleet management, and route planning to May’s capabilities.

May runs its low-speed AVs to augment public transit, unlike the robotaxi model of Cruise and Waymo, across five cities including Hiroshima. In 2021, May Mobility unveiled an autonomous, on-demand shuttle service in collaboration with transit technology firm Via in Arlington, Texas, Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor in Michigan.

To bolster the planned invasion of May Mobility, Bridgestone will also offer maintenance and service support to the startup’s AVs through its retail stores under the brand names Tires Plus, Firestone Complete Auto Care, Hibdon Tires Plus, and Wheel Works, along with Firestone Direct, the mobile service provider of Bridgestone.

Source credit:

https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/21/bridgestone-takes-minority-stake-in-may-mobility/