The Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli has taken a big step towards the future of the automotive industry. By signing a partnership agreement with Swedish technology company Univrses, which includes the acquisition of a 30 percent ownership stake, Pirelli has made it clear that tires are no longer just pieces of rubber that connect the car to the road. They become a key part of the vehicle’s digital ecosystem, its eyes and senses.
With this move, Pirelli plans to significantly improve its Cyber Tire platform, integrating it with advanced computer vision and artificial intelligence systems developed by Univrses. The result should be a system that allows cars not only to feel the road, but also to see and understand it in a way never seen before.
What does the combination of tires and artificial intelligence bring?
The Cyber Tire platform itself is much more than an advanced tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). It is an integrated hardware and software solution that collects data on pressure, temperature, load and tread condition using sensors located inside the tire itself. This data is already helping driver assistance systems (ADAS) to make better decisions.
But the sensors in the tires are only part of the bigger picture. That’s where Univrses comes in. Their 3DAI software, based on artificial intelligence, gives autonomous vehicles perceptual abilities. Using data from on-board cameras, combined with data from Cyber tires, the system enables technologies such as spatial deep learning and 3D positioning and mapping. In simpler terms, the car will not only know its precise location on the map, but will also be able to “learn” how to deal with the immediate environment, recognize hazards and adapt its driving to the conditions in real time.
This is a classic example of sensor fusion, a concept crucial to the development of autonomous driving. By combining information from different sources – cameras, radar, Lidar and now sensors in tires – the vehicle creates a more robust and reliable model of the environment. Such redundancy is crucial for overcoming the limitations of an individual sensor. For example, while cameras may struggle in low-light or bad weather conditions, sensors in tires can still provide crucial information about the level of grip on the surface.
Pilot project and the future of ‘software-defined vehicles’
This partnership with Univrses is not just a theory. In cooperation with the Italian region of Puglia, Pirelli launched a road network monitoring pilot project as early as 2025. Vehicles equipped with Cyber tires and Univrses’ computer vision system create a continuously updated map of the state of infrastructure on regional roads. The goal is to improve maintenance and safety, and the project serves as a proof of concept for wider application.
“Cooperation with Univrses will further improve our Cyber Tire platform thanks to advanced artificial vision technologies. This combination will make a significant contribution to the transformation of cars into true software-defined vehicles,” he said. Andrea CasaluciChief Executive Officer of Pirelli.
This vision coincides with industry trends. The global smart tire market is on track for significant growth, with estimates suggesting that it could reach a value between $7.78 billion and $8.6 billion by the early 2030s. By turning the tire into an intelligent data collection platform, Pirelli positions itself as an indispensable part of the central “brain” of the vehicle.