Pirelli smart tyres to help monitor road conditions

MILAN: The Apulia regional government and Pirelli are launching a unique pilot project for monitoring the condition of roads using smart tyres.

The aim is to create an accurate map of the region's road infrastructure using sensors embedded in the Italian manufacturer's Cyber Tyres.

The sensors would measure road surface roughness and irregularities in real time, with cameras that film the road at the same time.

The Cyber Tyre has 5G connectivity. Thanks to its integrated sensors, it can record the condition of the tyre and the road in real time while transferring this data to the car's on-board computer so that it can instantly adjust the onboard systems (anti-lock brakes, electronic stability program, etc.).

The vehicles in the fleet will transmit their data to a cloud storage site, where it would be analysed and, most importantly, made available to regional services.

The aim is to map the condition of roads throughout the region by deploying a fleet of vehicles this year, in order to ensure proactive maintenance and increased safety in the future.

The first such vehicles are expected to be operational by July. If this pilot project proves successful, it could be extended to other regions of Italy.

The Apulia region in southern Italy aims to anticipate future maintenance operations and, above all, improve response times to ensure maximum safety across all its road infrastructure.

At the same time, the region is set to become an international centre of expertise for Pirelli, which has already opened a software development laboratory in partnership with the Polytechnic University of Bari.

This project is also part of Pirelli's ongoing work with Movyon, a subsidiary of Autostrade per l'Italia, the country's leading freeway operator, on the smart monitoring of various kinds of road infrastructure such as bridges, viaducts and tunnels.