Pirelli bringing 'chipped' tire to market in 2010
Pirelli has announced a further innovation in the ongoing quest to remove the driving from driving. Sensors have been stashed in tires already for the hasty implementation of TPMS, but Pirelli has taken it a step further, putting a sensor package on the tire carcass itself. One implementation of the "Cyber Tire" is the "Lean," which harnesses power from the vibrations of the vehicle and beams information including tire pressure, temperature, and load to the vehicle's computer.
Cyber Tire Lean is setting things rolling for the eventual trotting out of full-blown Cyber Tire, which will be built into the tire. The high tech rubber will be more sophisticated and capable of communicating directly with stability control and anti-lock brakes to improve the effectiveness of dynamic safety systems. Cyber Tire will also carry a three-axis accelerometer that will facilitate real-time calculations of friction coefficients, contact force, and load. Pirelli is most proud of the edge the Cyber Tire will give the nanny systems to catch and correct idiotic driving faster than ever before.
[Source: The Auto Channel via Gumball144]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bill 10:24AM (8/28/2008)
Excuse me, but this sounds like an answer to a question no one with half a brain has been asking.
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Polly Prissy Pants 12:15PM (8/28/2008)
Would that be "Lean" as in about to fall over, or "Lean" as in low fat?
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jon benson 10:40AM (8/28/2008)
What? That press release was a difficult read. Here int he UK they're already trailing GPS pay as you drive schemes so the 'big brother' aspect of this scheme is already redundant.
Happy days for motoring :(
Jon - http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk
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John Johnson 10:42AM (8/28/2008)
The reason I buy Pirellis is to drive like an idiot. Why would they want to take that away?
I'm all for it helping ABS, etc... but what will it do if it senses my car is going at .87G? Hit the brakes for me? Correct my steering? Sounds like an accident waiting to happen.
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Red 11:27AM (8/28/2008)
A Cyber Tire inside of an actual tire? Wouldn't that be like, the tire's not even there because you know....it's in cyberspace and not actually inside a tire? That's extremely redundant.
"I'm so awesome, I've got a tire inside my tire."
"Does the inside tire help if you have a blow out?"
"No...it only exists when I enter the super secret portal to the Tron universe and then my inside Cyber tire becomes my outside Cyber tire which then makes my outside Cyber tire obsolete until I come back into the real world where people spend real money on real problems and product naming is a lost art. It's awesome huh?"
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steve.ricken 11:34AM (8/28/2008)
So... is this going to be another black box against drivers?
"Not only did your car computer say you were racing, but so did each of your tires."
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Mark 1:35PM (8/28/2008)
you sir owe me a new sprite and keyboard! lol
sledge 12:02PM (8/28/2008)
As I understand it, this system will tell the various safety systems that you are losing grip on one tire and so the ECU can then send power to other tires that do have grip.
Obviously that's only one application of the system, but I don't see this being a bad thing. If anything it will probably allow you to pull even more Gs in a corner! Also, since it will be able to give you friction coefficients at any given moment of time, you can probably optimize tire pressures to make sure you get the most out of your tires at a track day etc. Again a good thing!
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akboss 1:30PM (8/28/2008)
What happened to the good old days of motoring? I'm not that old, but I know that I get more of a thrill driving by brothers 1971 Camaro Z28 than I do in my friends brand-new Boxster. The Camaro is much less capable as a performance machine, but you are actually driving it. If I want to drive a car with virtual tires, I'll play Gran Turismo.
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Tam 2:00PM (8/28/2008)
Could make for some really interesting datalogging or telemetry on race cars. If they put these in race tires a lot of us racers would be all over it...
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