Lives Saver

Reduction of road casualties is still one of the main objectives of the European Community; even though safety levels increased during recent years, a remarkable number of accidents still takes place, mainly due to an improper evaluation of the safe speed by the driver. In fact the higher safety levels reached by the vehicles and associated with better performing tires, better asphalts and active safety devices, often induces the driver to overestimate the maximum safe speed. It is straightforward to understand that a warning system able to indicate a proper driving speed associated with the actual road status (friction coefficient, presence of snow etc) could significantly increase the safety level. The paper describes the project “Lives Saver” based on an innovative technology represented by CyberTyre©, a sensorized tire allowing to characterize in real time the road condition in terms of: maximum friction coefficient, hydroplaning risk, presence of snow and road texture. These information can be transmitted to the infrastructure and the distributed among the vehicles running on a given route.