First Stage in Pirelli ‘Cyber Tyre’ Technology Coming 2010

Pirelli is close to releasing its latest tyre technology – an ‘intelligent’ tyre fitted with a microchip within its carcass. Courtesy of the tyre’s hi-tech addition, vital information about the tyre and road conditions can be communicated to a vehicle’s on-board computer, thereby improving the car’s electronic control and warning the driver of any potential problems.

The new ‘intelligent’ tyre will make its commercial debut in two phases – the Cyber Tyre Lean and the Cyber Tyre. The first of these has an anticipated release state of early 2010 will be capable of registering data such as tyre pressure and temperature, plus average vehicle load. The technology in the self-powered Cyber Tyre Lean – it receives the required energy directly from vibrations generated by the t tyre as it turns – is affixed directly into the tyre’s inner liner. Through the use of RFID technology, the tyre can also store other data, such as the type of tyre, the production date and the production site.

However the Cyber Lean represents only the first step in a process that will lead to a tyre that is an actual sensor in itself. Further down the evolutionary path from the Cyber Tyre Lean will be the Cyber Tyre, a product that will employ an even more sophisticated and smaller electronic device to communicate with a vehicle’s electronic devices, such as ABS and ESP, in real time. This more advanced sensor will supply tyre information that is more detailed and precise, and the sensor componentry will be directly inserted into the structure of the tyre, becoming an integral part of its construction.

Pirelli further explains that, thanks to the insertion of a triaxial accelerometer (which can measure acceleration on the 3 Cartesian axes – length, width, and height) and by means of complex algorithms, the Cyber Tyre will also give data on the actual and potential friction coefficients, the force of the contact between tyre and road, and on the load, instantaneously.

The upshot of all this technology is, the Italian manufacturer adds, is that the sensor, unlike currently available devices that intervene only after a driving mistake has already been made, will be able to rectify incorrect behaviour in advance.