The joint project aims to help tire engineers analyse technical data, explore new hypotheses and make research decisions while keeping humans responsible for final judgement.
Yokohama Rubber Co. and US-based artificial intelligence specialist dotData have begun jointly developing an AI agent designed to support engineers working in manufacturing research and development. The project combines technical documents, accumulated engineering knowledge and data-derived features to provide decision-making information tailored to the objectives, circumstances and constraints of individual R&D projects.
The planned system will draw on design information, experimental reports and other technical documents, together with knowledge accumulated by engineers. dotData’s automatic feature design technology will also be used to identify useful features from measurement and experimental data, giving engineers additional data-based information to consider during research activities.
Rather than attempting to deliver a single answer, the AI agent is being developed around a human-in-the-loop approach. It will present engineers with information from different perspectives, potential risks and possible relationships identified from data, while engineers will remain responsible for interpreting the information and making final decisions.
The companies are initially testing the required functions and technical feasibility before moving toward wider application in R&D. They are also examining a system through which engineers can communicate their analytical objectives and areas of interest to the AI, with the agent assisting with the operations and settings required to explore the relevant data.
The initiative builds on Yokohama Rubber’s existing use of dotData within its HAICoLab framework, which was established in 2020 to promote collaboration between humans and AI. The tire maker has already applied dotData technology to areas including tire design and rubber mixing, combining automatically identified data features with engineers’ interpretations to generate new findings and hypotheses.
Yokohama Rubber is also expanding its use of AI across tire development. In August 2026, the company began full-scale operation of a proprietary generative AI system using retrieval-augmented generation to search internal technical documents and provide information supporting decisions during tire development, including material development.
The new dotData collaboration is intended to extend this approach by combining data analysis, technical knowledge and AI-assisted exploration. The system is expected to help engineers consider perspectives beyond their individual experience and examine technical hypotheses from multiple viewpoints, while retaining human expertise and judgement at the centre of the development process.
Both companies plan to continue testing the AI agent through manufacturing R&D applications and work toward a model that can support engineers across different research themes, datasets and development stages. Yokohama Rubber aims to further strengthen its HAICoLab-based R&D environment, while dotData is developing technologies for broader AI collaboration in specialised manufacturing activities.