Goodyear advances fleet mobility with Borrow deal

Akron, Ohio - —Goodyear is teaming up with Prazo Inc., an electric car subscription company doing business as Borrow, to help it forecast and schedule tire maintenance and replacement on a timely basis.

"Goodyear is focused on the future of mobility with a strong emphasis on fleets and electric vehicles," said Chris Helsel, Goodyear's chief technology officer in a 30 May statement.

"This relationship with Borrow continues our testing of digital service solutions for consumer fleets, allowing Goodyear to lead in this space."

West Hollywood, California-based Borrow has 80 customers so far but said it is on track to have 750 cars on the road by year-end.

The tire maker said its focus is to service the fleet's tires, as well as provide additional services in order to maximise Borrow's uptime and customer experience.

Goodyear is using its Goodyear Mobile Tire Shop vans to service Borrow's customers' vehicles, with the potential to include its company-owned retail stores and aligned dealer network the pilot progresses.

The company is using its predictive tire-servicing solution for connected fleets to forecast and automatically schedule needed tire maintenance and replacement, Goodyear said in announcing the partnership.

"Leveraging Goodyear's expertise in tires, the cloud-based platform predicts and automatically schedules tire servicing via vehicle data and proprietary algorithms."

The tire company is using the partnership as a "larger laboratory" to continue developing fleet services and similar products.

Goodyear's Innovation Lab in San Francisco will test its technology while servicing the Borrow fleet.

Borrow offers customers subscriptions that allow them to lease an electric vehicle for three, six or nine months, with some high-end vehicles , including BMW i3 and Tesla, in its stable.

The company includes charging credits, all maintenance and roadside assistance in its price, and Goodyear will help it predict when tires need to be replaced and provide roadside service with its company vans.