Cyber Tyre™ reads the road and warns of trouble ahead

Pirelli is opening up a new era in tyre technology. The latest innovation to emerge from Milan is the Cyber Tyre™: an intelligent tyre that provides vital information about vehicle performance and road conditions, as well as the tyre’s status, thanks to a sophisticated sensor embedded in the structure. This data is conveyed to the driver as well as to the car’s electronics, helping improve safety and efficiency. At the heart of Cyber Tyre™ is an autonomous electronic sensor that measures around a centimetre squared, which reads the road and its interaction with the tyre, “talking” in real time via a wireless connection to the car’s on-board computer and other electronic systems. These then display information to the driver via a graphic interface. The sensor interprets the grip available, analysing road conditions that range from dry to wet to icy, together with the condition of the road surface. Cyber Tyre™ additionally senses the vertical load on the tyre as well as the lateral and longitudinal forces at work on it, calculating how much speed can be carried before aquaplaning occurs, as well as how much grip is available before the car starts to skid. Other data fields include information about the type of asphalt on the road, plus the footprint and angle of the tyre, as well as tyre temperature, pressure, wear and number of revolutions. The sensor also acts as each tyre’s “passport”, carrying unique information about its identity. Cyber Tyre™, which is currently being studied for inclusion as original equipment by the world’s major car manufacturers, is already a reality thanks to the CyberFleet™ system for commercial vehicles which is used by 150 fleets in Europe and South America, with more than 100.000.000 km monitored so far. CyberFleet™, via the sensors mounted inside the tyres, helps monitoring their pressure and temperature, enabling the fleet to optimize costs by reducing efficient.