Bridgestone Americas, one of the world’s manufacturer of tires and sustainable mobility solutions, has made a minority investment in May Mobility, a startup developing autonomous vehicle technology.
This marks Bridgestone’s first investment in public-serving autonomous vehicles.
May Mobility leverages its innovative Multi-Policy Decision Making system aimed at making transportation safer, more accessible, equitable, and sustainable.
The new partnership will include the future integration of Bridgestone’s digital and predictive tire-centric technologies into May Mobility autonomous vehicles, granting deeper autonomous vehicles intelligence for even safer and more efficient operation.
Through the partnership, Bridgestone will also gain valuable insights into autonomous vehicle operations to improve its core tire products and mobility solutions.
The new relationship between Bridgestone and Ann Arbor, Michigan-based May Mobility expands the autonomous vehicles technology company’s ability to operate and service its vehicles in new markets through Bridgestone’s nationwide network of more than 2,200 tire and automotive service centers doing business under the Firestone Complete Auto Care, Tires Plus, Hibdon Tires Plus and Wheel Works retail brands.
In addition, May Mobility will also be able to leverage the company’s mobile service provider, Firestone Direct, to support their expansion.
This will further enhance May Mobility’s ability to scale autonomous vehicles operations for its growing fleet of Toyota passenger vehicles, including the Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS.
May Mobility plans to continue expanding operations in the US and Japan, building sustainable, accessible, affordable autonomous vehicles transit solutions.
Brian Goldstine, president of mobility solutions and fleet management, Bridgestone Americas, says: “May Mobility is at the forefront of autonomous vehicle innovation and development, and we are excited to partner with the company through our broad service network of company-owned retail stores.
“Our future plans to integrate the Bridgestone suite of predictive maintenance insights will help ensure that May Mobility vehicles operate even more safely, efficiently and sustainably.”
May Mobility vehicles will also utilize insights derived from in-wheel sensors and proprietary Bridgestone predictive algorithms to monitor the health of tires, including tire pressure, temperature and tread wear, which will allow for proactive and predictive maintenance that helps improve fleet safety, efficiency and sustainability.
Azuga, a cloud-based fleet mobility solution acquired by Bridgestone in 2021, will also be leveraged by May Mobility to improve business performance through the platform’s fleet management, camera intelligence and route planning features.
Edwin Olson, CEO of May Mobility, says: “The ability to operate and service vehicles using Bridgestone’s 2,200 nationwide stores gives May Mobility an unmatched ability to scale across the country.
“This collaboration builds upon our shared mission of providing safe and sustainable mobility solutions on a global scale.”
This investment is another example of Bridgestone’s continued evolution to provide smart-sensing tires and sustainable mobility solutions.
The May Mobility partnership follows the company’s recently announced investments in mobile fuel and energy provider, Yoshi, and tire data supplier, Tyrata. Bridgestone and May Mobility plan to launch their vehicle service integration plans later this year.
