Tactile Mobility and leading OEM agree deal to bring Tactile Sensing Tech to vehicles
Leading tactile data and virtual sensing technology company Tactile Mobility has announced a commercial partnership to embed Tactile Mobility’s software technology into the BMW Group’s next-generation vehicles on a global scale beginning in 2021.
This trailblazing collaboration marks one of the first commercial integrations by an OEM of tactile sensing technology and data, which will be used to enhance driving performance and detection of road conditions.
The integration of Tactile Mobility’s pioneering sensing software into the BMW Group’s vehicle models marks a new era of sensing-based innovation in the automotive industry. The collaboration will equip the BMW Group’s vehicles with the ability to analyse the road surface attributes under their tires, enabling accurate detection of road conditions and unprecedented vehicle dynamics management functions to enhance availability and performance.
Tactile Mobility provides a software suite which utilizes vehicles’ built-in, non-visual sensors to collect and analyse data about vehicle/road dynamics, enabling smart and connected vehicles to analyze the road surfaces below their tires as well as modelling vehicle systems performance and road conditions. In-vehicle, real-time data includes attributes such as available grip level, which signifies the specific vehicle/road traction limits.
Tactile Mobility’s VehicleDNA™ is an anonymized representation of each vehicle’s systems characteristics, including suspensions, powertrain, braking efficiency, tire health, and more. SurfaceDNATM is a bundle of mapping layers of road attributes, conditions and distresses that offers an in-depth view of driving environments to better anticipate road conditions ahead and pre-configure vehicle systems. The integration of Tactile Mobility’s software into BMW’s software stack is an acknowledgment of tactile sensing and data’s great promise for the automotive industry.
“We are thrilled to partner with the BMW Group to equip their smart and future automated vehicles with the sense of ‘touch’ and show the commercial viability of tactile sensing technology,” said Boaz Mizrachi, Tactile Mobility’s Co-founder and CTO.
The long-term cooperation between the BMW Group and Tactile Mobility began through the BMW Startup Garage, the Venture Client unit of the BMW Group.
“We are appreciative of the support the BMW Startup Garage and the entire team at the BMW Group has given us and look forward to working together to provide smart and connected vehicles with a more comprehensive picture of the driving environments around them, which will now include the tactile sense,” said Rani Plaut, Executive board member of Tactile Mobility. “Our dedicated team has been working towards this type of commercial integration for years, and we’re excited to see the results implemented in the BMW Group’s fleet of vehicles.”
Tactile Mobility is the world’s leading tactile virtual sensing technology and data provider, enabling actionable insights for autonomous vehicles, municipalities, and fleet managers. Tactile Mobility’s unique technology collects “first principle”, crucial, anonymized real-time data generated from vehicles’ non-visual, existing sensors and turns it into actionable insights on road attributes including grades, grip, and curvatures as well as vehicle attributes such as weight, tire parameters, and more.
Insights provided by Tactile Mobility greatly enhance vehicle intelligence and ride safety, efficiency and experience as well as empower city officials with new and much higher value data to better conduct planned maintenance and detect hazards in near real-time. Tactile Mobility was co-founded in 2012 by Boaz Mizrachi, Yossi Shiri and Alex Ackerman. The company is already working with multiple OEMs, road authorities, and municipalities and is based in Haifa, Israel with a presence in Europe, the US, and Asia.
