The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
GT
recently announced a multi-year collaboration with Gatik, aimed at advancing the development of mobility solutions for the autonomous business to business (B2B) short-haul logistics industry.
Founded in 2017, Gatik has established itself as a leader in autonomous middle-mile delivery. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for the retail industry, enabling its customers to optimize their supply chains at affordable convenience. The company’s mission is to deliver goods safely and efficiently using autonomous vehicles. It established the first autonomous middle-mile logistics network in North America and is rapidly expanding its fleet of Class 3-6 autonomous box trucks for customers in multiple markets, including Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Ontario.
Both companies are highly optimistic about this collaboration. Per the deal, Goodyear’s venture capital fund, Goodyear Ventures, participated in Gatik’s recently-closed $85 million Series B funding. The size of the investment has not been revealed.
The latest agreement builds upon Goodyear’s existing industry-leading connected tire management products, in an effort to improve the stopping distances in autonomous commercial vehicles, and keep track of tire pressure on a real-time basis for enhanced safety and reduced wear. Per the agreement, Gatik’s medium-duty fleet will utilize tires powered by Goodyear’s SightLine technology. SightLine collects critical data on tires and communicates tire health back to users.
There is a three-fold benefit of using Goodyear’s tire intelligence technology — enhanced safety, increased efficiency and reduced costs — principles which are crucial to Gatik’s success. As Gatik scales up its operations, the use of Goodyear’s advanced tire intelligence solutions is anticipated to help reduce fuel and maintenance costs, while improving the vehicle performance and safety for customers employing Gatik’s autonomous solution. Thus, the deal will contribute to safer and more sustainable goods movement, while reducing costs for Gatik’s customers in the B2B short-haul market.
For Goodyear, Gatik’s goal to deliver goods safely and efficiently using autonomous vehicles is in perfect sync with its investment strategy, thus making the latter an excellent add-on to its existing portfolio, which already has key autonomous delivery players in the long-haul and last-mile delivery markets. This investment is an ideal fit for Goodyear as it opens new unexplored avenues for the tire maker, enabling it to gain experience about the implications of autonomous technologies in the increasingly important middle-mile delivery and logistics. Coupled, Goodyear and Gatik will combine their state-of-the-art technologies to help bring more operational efficiency in the middle-mile segment.
Akron-based Goodyear is one of the largest tire manufacturing companies in the world, selling under the Goodyear, Kelly, Dunlop, Fulda, Debica, Sava and various other brands. It has secured a leadership position in electric mobility through developing tires that will help them transform their portfolios to more energy-efficient and eco-friendly vehicles. In June, Goodyear completed the acquisition of Cooper Tire, thereby strengthening its leadership position in the global tire industry. This historic deal marked the collaboration of two of the biggest American tire companies.
Goodyear currently carries a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold).
Better-ranked stocks in the auto space include
LKQ Corporation
LKQ
,
Honda
HMC
and
Tesla
TSLA
, all of which flaunt a Zacks Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), at present. You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
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