Crain News Service report
PARIS (Oct. 2, 2014) — Group Michelin will highlight at the Paris Motor Show, Oct. 4-19, a research initiative it's conducting to monitor the driving habits of thousands of motorists in real time.
Deployed across Europe, Michelin said the road-use laboratory will gather data in real time about how motorists with different driving habits use their vehicles every day. The findings will then be used to support product innovation by the tire maker.
Special measuring devices, equipped with so-called “Internet of Things” technologies, have been installed on 2,800 cars that are part of automobile fleets or belong to individuals, ranging from beginning to more experienced drivers.
The three-year study, which began last June, consists of monitoring each of the drivers every time they use their vehicle. Data gathered will include the number of kilometers driven and the speed.
The devices will record each time the driver accelerates or applies the brakes, both on straights and when cornering. The research will be analyzed and cross-referenced with weather data and information about the roads' curviness and surface conditions.
“The data will enable Michelin to further improve its understanding of driving habits so that its innovations will be ever more relevant,” the company said in a statement.
“Understanding how motorists drive is the necessary prerequisite to developing better tires that deliver performance in all areas that are meaningful for their users,” Michelin added.
The French tire maker said it invests more than $80 million in its R&D programs annually, conducts 75,000 tests with consumers around the world and surveys about 11,000 tire buyers for its research.
This report appeared on the website of European Rubber Journal, a UK-based sister publication of Tire Business.