Treads Partners with Anyline to Put the Power of Managing a Vehicle in the Palm of the Consumer’s Hand
Jonathan Stotts
Senior PR & Communications Manager
Treads, an AI-powered car management subscription mobile app that launched in May 2021 to simplify car ownership and make it more enjoyable and affordable at scale. The company has since expanded into 21 major US markets with over 4,000 customers offering subscriptions for tires, oil changes, alignments and wiper blades, as well as a full auto insurance marketplace. The company plans to expand into 34 major cities by the end of 2023.
The Vision
As the company expands its capabilities and size, Treads sought a solution where car owners could easily and independently verify their actual tire tread depth or the life left in their tires, leading to its partnership with Anyline. Using state-of-the-art AI and computer vision, Anyline Tread Depth Scanner solution makes it easy to accurately measure tire tread depth – using any mobile device. It can be integrated into workforce or consumer-facing apps via an API. With Anyline’s Tread Depth Scanner, Treads is able to ensure its customers are always driving on a safe set of tires.
“Anyline Tread Depth Scanner is cutting-edge technology that no one else has delivered to the market in a reliable way,” says Zach Olson CEO of Treads. “We’ve seen rapid growth as a company and attribute it all to our AI technology-first approach. Our partnership with Anyline is a natural progression and strengthens our technology toolkit to make the car ownership journey frictionless.”
“I am incredibly proud and excited to welcome Treads into our growing family of valued partners. Our Tire Tread Scanning solution represents a significant leap in mobile data capture technology,” said Lukas Kinigadner, CEO and co-founder at Anyline. “With this breakthrough, we are not just changing the game; we’re rewriting the rules on automotive data capture. Treads’ decision to embrace this cutting-edge solution is a testament to their commitment to excellence, and we look forward to a long and fruitful partnership. Together, we’re driving innovation, enhancing safety, and revolutionizing the automotive industry.”
Simplifying Car Ownership
While transportation is at the core of the general public’s economic and social well-being, most consumers know very little about how a car works or where to find specific information, like DOT numbers on the tire sidewall. As part of the Treads workflow, customers have to collect the DOT number of each tire, tire size and now tire tread. So, it was important to create a very simplified way to collect that data just by using their cell phone. “Adopting the Anyline technology, it’s point and shoot for the customer to literally take a picture of the tire and extract that data and then give us the information we need so they can proceed in the user flow,” says Olson. “The technology does the heavy lifting and then extracts the data Treads needs.”
A major value proposition for Treads is that it continually collects and aggregates a lot of valuable vehicle data that is processed to predict a vehicle’s service needs well before a driver knows it. That allows Treads to send out proactive maintenance notifications, which customers can use to schedule needed services right from within the app – right from the push notification. “Ultimately, our goal is to ensure our drivers aren’t stuck on the side of the road somewhere,” adds Olson. “But when they are, they simply open up the Treads app, click the damaged tire button and it walks them through scheduling a service appointment to get that damaged tire either repaired or replaced.”
In the current economic environment of rising vehicle costs, Treads’ subscription model aims to smooth out the cost of maintaining a vehicle. Its partnership with Anyline expands its capabilities and further protects car owners from surprise expenses and lowers the cost of entry for owning and driving a vehicle.
