Pirelli SpA has entered a formal partnership with Italy-based engineering firm Abet High Tech Solutions to supply intelligent tire technology for remotely operated rescue and defense vehicles, marking the tire maker's most direct move yet into the military and emergency response sector. The agreement, signed August 5, will be submitted to Italy's Golden Power authority for national security review within 45 days.
Why This Matters
• Pirelli is now a supplier of defense-adjacent technology, diversifying revenue beyond consumer and motorsport tires.
• The Cybertyre sensor platform will transmit real-time road data to unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) navigating disaster zones or combat terrain.
• Italy's Golden Power screening applies, signaling the government views this partnership as strategically relevant to national security infrastructure.
• This follows a pattern of European tire manufacturers embedding AI and sensor tech into autonomous and remotely piloted vehicles in 2026.
What Pirelli Is Bringing to the Table
At the core of the collaboration is Pirelli's Cybertyre system, a tire-embedded sensor array that collects data on surface friction, temperature, pressure, and wear, then streams it to vehicle control systems in real time. For a remotely piloted vehicle traversing rubble after an earthquake or navigating hostile territory, that data loop becomes critical: the operator, who may be kilometers away, needs to know whether the vehicle is about to lose traction on loose gravel or puncture a tire on rebar.
Pirelli will also develop a Run Forward tire variant specifically for UGVs. Run Forward is the company's proprietary run-flat technology, allowing a vehicle to continue operating even after a puncture or pressure loss—a feature borrowed from high-performance and armored civilian applications. The engineering challenge here is adapting that technology to extreme, unpredictable surfaces: collapsed concrete, flooded streets, battlefield debris.
Beyond hardware, Pirelli and Abet will jointly train AI and machine learning models that fuse data from the Cybertyre sensors and vehicle-mounted cameras. The goal is predictive routing: the vehicle learns to anticipate which path offers the best grip, where obstacles are likely to emerge, and when a tire is approaching failure, adjusting its trajectory or speed autonomously or flagging the operator.
Abet's Role: Lightweight Armor and Integration
Abet High Tech Solutions, an Italian firm specializing in composite sandwich panels and lightweight armor, will supply the vehicle chassis and body. The engineering tradeoff for UGVs is familiar: you want protection (from debris, shrapnel, or hostile fire) but also mobility. Heavy armor drains battery life and limits speed; composite materials offer a middle path.
Fulvio Serra, CEO of Abet, described the target deployment scenarios in a statement: military logistics and rescue in active theaters, post-earthquake search operations, and radioactive or chemically contaminated zones where human entry is prohibitively dangerous. The company's expertise in armored vehicle structures complements Pirelli's tire intelligence, creating a vertically integrated UGV platform.
Golden Power Review and Strategic Sensitivity
The Golden Power framework allows the Italian Cabinet to block or impose conditions on foreign investments or partnerships involving critical infrastructure, defense, energy, and strategic technologies. While both Pirelli and Abet are Italian entities, the partnership's focus on remotely operated defense vehicles and sensor data integration places it squarely within the scope of technologies the government monitors for dual-use potential.
The 45-day review period begins once the agreement is formally notified to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. If no objections are raised, the partnership can proceed as planned. If concerns arise—for example, around intellectual property transfer, supply chain dependencies, or export controls—the government may impose restrictions or request modifications.
How This Fits Into Pirelli's Broader Strategy
Pirelli CEO Andrea Casaluci described the Abet partnership as the latest in a series of moves to commercialize the Cybertyre platform beyond passenger vehicles. Previous partnerships include Bosch (for MEMS sensor integration and software), Movyon (toll and smart road infrastructure), and Univrses, a Swedish AI vision startup in which Pirelli took a 30% stake earlier in 2026.
The company's pitch is that the tire—long treated as a commodity component—can become a data source that improves vehicle control, road safety, and infrastructure planning. For autonomous and remotely piloted vehicles, where human intuition about road feel is absent, sensor-equipped tires fill a sensory gap.
The defense and emergency response segment represents a niche but high-margin opportunity. UGVs are expensive, low-volume, and require custom engineering, but they are also less price-sensitive than consumer tires. If Pirelli can establish itself as a preferred supplier for remotely operated platforms—whether for the Italian military, civil protection agencies, or allied NATO forces—it gains a foothold in a sector where performance and reliability outweigh cost.
Global Context: UGVs in Disaster and Defense
Remotely piloted ground vehicles are increasingly common in disaster response. After the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force deployed four-legged UGVs to deliver medical supplies and conduct reconnaissance in unstable terrain. In Italy, the EU-funded TRADR project used wheeled UGVs to map damage inside Amatrice's collapsed church after the 2016 earthquake. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has tested UGVs from Boston Dynamics and Teledyne FLIR for hazmat response, building collapse scenarios, and victim detection.
In Ukraine, UGVs have been adapted for casualty evacuation under fire, a role that could translate to civilian mass-casualty events. Estonia's Milrem Robotics is developing a Multiscope Rescue UGV with firefighting attachments capable of entering burning buildings or toxic environments.
The common thread: these vehicles need tires that can handle broken glass, metal shards, chemical residue, and sudden terrain changes while transmitting data to operators who cannot physically feel the road. Pirelli's bet is that the Cybertyre platform, refined over years in motorsport and luxury automotive applications, can meet that need.
Competition and Comparisons
Pirelli is not alone in this space. Goodyear has partnered with PlusAI to integrate its SightLine tire intelligence into autonomous trucks, providing friction and road condition data to self-driving systems. Sumitomo Rubber showcased its SENSING CORE technology at CES 2026, combining tire sensors with AI from its subsidiary Viaduct for predictive maintenance in fleet and autonomous vehicles. Michelin has launched an AI-powered digital twin of the tire, a software model that predicts tire state and interacts with vehicle systems without requiring physical sensors in every tire.
Continental and Bridgestone are also active in connected tire development, though their focus to date has been commercial fleets and passenger autonomy rather than defense applications. Pirelli's advantage, if it materializes, lies in the combination of run-flat resilience, real-time sensor data, and AI-driven predictive models—all integrated into a compact, battery-powered vehicle operating in conditions where failure is not an option.
What This Means for Investors and Industry
For Pirelli shareholders, the Abet partnership is a signal that the company is serious about diversifying beyond traditional automotive markets, which face commoditization pressure and slowing growth in Europe. Defense and public safety sectors offer long contract cycles, government procurement budgets, and higher margins than mass-market tires.
For the Italian defense industrial base, the collaboration is a reminder that dual-use technologies—sensors, AI, composite materials—are increasingly central to national security. As European governments ramp up defense spending and civil protection infrastructure in response to geopolitical instability and climate-driven disasters, companies that can bridge the civilian and defense worlds stand to benefit.
Whether the Cybertyre-equipped UGV becomes a standard tool for Italy's Protezione Civile or finds buyers among NATO allies remains to be seen. What is clear is that Pirelli, a 150-year-old tire maker, is positioning itself as a mobility data company—and the most extreme test of that technology may not be on a racetrack, but in a war zone or under a collapsed building.
Timeline and Next Steps
The Golden Power notification is expected within days. Assuming regulatory clearance, Pirelli and Abet will begin integration work, with initial UGV prototypes likely targeted for 2027 field trials. Casaluci has indicated that the company views this as an exploratory market entry, with potential for scaling if performance meets expectations and procurement interest materializes.
For residents and businesses in Italy, the practical impact is indirect but noteworthy: if the technology proves viable, future earthquake or flood responses could involve fleets of sensor-equipped robots delivering supplies, mapping damage, and locating survivors—tasks currently performed by human first responders at significant risk. The tire company that sponsored Formula 1 champions may soon be quietly saving lives in disaster zones.
