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CLEVELAND – Truck Tire Manufacturing Representatives Pushed Back on Ownership and Data Security at Roundtable at Council’s Fall Meeting and Transportation Technology Expo American Trucking Associations Technology and Maintenance 2021.

The September 15 discussion focused on devices on tires that help collect data.

“My question comes down to who owns the data,” asked a member of the public. “We have all of these items reported to telematics and now they are transferred to the cloud and through a third party analytics system before returning to the fleet. The fleets contain sensitive information in this data. What are we doing as an industry to protect this data? “

There are many devices that could potentially be built into tires to help fleets track their condition. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips can help a fleet obtain information stored on a tire when it is scanned. Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) and Automatic Tire Inflation Systems (ATIS) may also be included. Each system can collect data which is often routed through a cloud-based service for analysis before it is sent back to the fleet.

“I can’t speak to the whole industry,” said Lee Demis, vice president of business development at Doran Manufacturing. “I think if you asked each segment, each would have a different answer on who has this data.”

Demis added that in terms of the fleets they work with, they tend to control who has access to tire data. While some fleets choose to share this information, others keep it private unless they have an issue that they need help from their tire supplier.

“It’s a hot topic right now, who owns the data,” Demis said. “I think everyone thinks they have the data, and trying to figure out who exactly it is and what part of the process is very difficult right now.”

It’s a hot topic right now, who owns the data. I think everyone thinks they own the data,

Lee Demis, Vice President of Business Development at Doran Manufacturing

Austin Crayne, director of business development at Goodyear, noted that fleets and tire manufacturers will often spell out these details before signing a contract. This includes who owns the data, how it can be used, and security. He added that if it’s not in the contract, a fleet should ask about it.

“There will usually be an agreement between a supplier and a fleet,” Crayne said. “Usually the ownership of the data will be specified there,” he said. “So even before this contract is signed before deployment, there should be some sort of agreement on who owns this data and how the data can be used. Data security is assured.

Another audience member asked for clarification on the RFID information stored in the cloud and whether that means fleets will have free access to lifecycle data.

“Different parts of the data will be available,” said Nate Panning, responsible for connected mobility services at Michelin. “I don’t want to get ahead of some industry announcements on how this might be structured. But there will be both public parts of the dataset, which will be free, and there will be private parts that are not necessarily free.

“It is a business decision of each of the suppliers in the industry, the tire manufacturers, to decide what their pricing strategies will be. “

A member of the public also asked about data ownership and tire theft. He argued that tire manufacturers should consider allowing fleets to own the data and be cited as the original owner in that information to prevent theft. He added that there is no point in not having a clear property line throughout the life of the tire.

“These are generally industry standards that should be in place,” Panning said. “I can’t speak for the industry and if the industry would pay for it. But we are working to be able to link data on tire usage. How that might solve the theft is a complicated question that I can’t really answer.

Another person in the audience asked if there are any plans to upgrade the RFID chips so that fleets can add information to them. At the moment, the chips are mostly read-only.

“It’s complicated on a number of levels because you would have to be able to unlock those tokens,” Panning said. “The cost of the chips is also determined by the amount of information you have on them. And then perhaps one of the biggest challenges is to standardize what you would write on this chip. “

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