LE CASTELLET, France (May 20)—Pirelli S.p.A., seeking to push the envelope in vehicle mobility, is developing "cyber" tires and wheels that monitor operating conditions constantly and feed that information into a vehicle's onboard dynamic control systems.
Pirelli also has market ready tire-pressure monitoring systems under the X-Pressure name that can alert drivers of low-pressure situations any of four ways—optically via a valve cap, acoustically via the onboard electronic management system or via Blue Tooth mobile phone technology, or visually via on-board systems.
Pirelli demonstrated these and other extended mobility technologies—including a version of its motorcycle tire-based Safety Wheel System for sport-utility vehicles—May 16 at the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track near Marseilles, France.