Smart Tires Hit the Road

The technology is geared toward vehicles that specialize in last-mile delivery, which refers to the final step in getting packages from a distribution center to the customer. The market for last-mile delivery has picked up as online shopping has soared during the coronavirus pandemic. Goodyear's new technology, announced Wednesday, is called SightLine and includes a sensor and proprietary machine-learning algorithms that can predict flat tires or other issues days ahead of time, by measuring tire wear, pressure, road-surface conditions and many other factors. The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. The surge of last-mile deliveries during the pandemic means that a lot of vehicles are on the road, "stopping and going, hitting curbs, causing damage to the tires, causing breakdowns and congestion," said Richard Kramer, chief executive of Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear.