‘We improve your safety on wet roads’: Easyrain, an innovative company, is committed to transforming the automotive safety industry

“Over time, we have managed to overcome skepticism and today car makers are starting to collaborate with us.”

Easyrain, an automotive safety solutions company, aims to improve the safety of any wheeled vehicle. It developed, tested and patented a new driver assistance system specifically designed to contrast aquaplaning. The system prevents large amounts of water from touching the tire, thereby improving a vehicle’s performance and safety, by increasing the adherence of the tire on wet surfaces; a problem and need that is not currently addressed by any safety device.

Since 2013, Easyrain has been developing AIS or Aquaplaning Intelligent Solution, an intelligent hydro-pneumatic safety system with custom-made nozzles placed in front of the front wheels of the vehicles and capable of cleaning the wet surface of the tires to contract aquaplaning and improve the road grip of the tires. With the second generation of AIS prototype, due in the summer of 2022, the system will be smaller, lighter, and easy to be fitted in every type of car, from city cars (with little room in the front end to place the system) to SUV (with higher road clearance), including EV vehicles and autonomous cars.

The connected virtual sensor, DAI or Digital Aquaplaning Information, is part of EDP or Easyrain Digital Platform, a platform hosting virtual sensors that recognize dangerous road conditions. DAI helps secure driving on wet asphalt conditions by sending alerts to the vehicle and adding new vehicle safety functionalities, such as wet mode activation; DAI operates with vehicle’s standard onboard systems and no additional sensors are required. DAI uses data and sensors already present on the vehicle through the CAN (Controller Area Network) and predictive algorithms. DAI can be further integrated into the 5G network to warn nearby vehicles. AIS and DAI are therefore designed for every kind of vehicle.

Importantly, Easyrain Cloud (ERC) collects data, coming from the EDP platform and GPS location of the vehicle, and processes it to share information on dangerous road conditions, to expand and enhance the potential of Easyrain technologies and perform advanced computations for real-time warning on vehicle parts maintenance.

Easyrain is headquartered in Piedmont, Italy.

The Silicon Review contacted Giovanni Blandina, founder and CEO of Easyrain, who spoke about how the company is making a difference in this segment and plans to stay at the forefront. Below is an excerpt.

“We know the rules and dynamics of the automotive world and are creating safety systems that meet the specific requirements of carmakers. We are doing this by relying on our strength and ingenuity.”

“We have approached an issue (aquaplaning) that has been around since the cars came out. The idea that we could succeed where the big names have failed was hard to believe. Over time, we have managed to overcome skepticism and today car makers are starting to collaborate with us. The challenge was to launch a startup with the mission to develop active safety systems, thus requiring a huge amount of money. Finding the funds to do R&D, staying in Italy, and having no helping channels was certainly one of the most important roadblocks I had to face. Another hazardous, but very rewarding, choice was to follow the opposite direction of where the automotive industry has been allocating investments: in an era of digitalization, software, and autonomous driving, Easyrain chose to develop hardware systems.”

“We encourage our employees to express their views and ideas because we need to think faster, more efficiently to quickly overcome problems. We will not get second chances, so it’s our responsibility to ensure we innovate on daily basis. Furthermore, every team member knows that they are essential for the success of the entire project and in the development of the product. The choice is dictated by the desire to be part of a challenge. Skills can be bought and enhanced by paying for master classes, but the willingness to face challenges, the desire to participate in something great, and the attitude to sacrifice cannot be bought. This is why these aspects are a priority in the selection of people both as employees and partners.”

Facilitating Success

The car world is changing and change is often frightening. On the contrary, Easyrain is living this moment with unbelievable enthusiasm, because it believes that change is a synonym for opportunity. Over the years, Easyrain has become a leader in the research and development of innovative safety systems. As a result, the company represents an incredible success, especially considering the most positive feedback it received at the outset.

“Strongly believing in myself and the possibility of succeeding has allowed us to make great strides. Put simply, you need to listen to your critics, nonetheless, you have to be persistent and march on.”

Giovanni Blandina | Founder & CEO

From MotoGP to Marelli, Giovanni Blandina, 43, has spent his life in the world of motors. In 2013, he founded Easyrain, an innovative SME that advanced solutions to improve automotive safety proposals. With Easyrain, he has developed and patented AIS, the first active safety system capable of effectively reducing the aquaplaning phenomenon by restoring vehicle grip and control, and the DAI, a sensor capable of making driving on wet asphalt safe; thanks to proprietary predictive algorithms.

Giovanni has gained extensive experience in R&D and testing for the automotive industry as a project leader. Since 2019, he has been a mentor of I3P, an incubator of the Polytechnic of Turin. After having founded Easyrain and having held the role of CTO, he has been CEO of the company since 2020.

"We know the rules and dynamics of the automotive world and are creating safety systems that meet the specific requirements of carmakers. We are doing this by relying on our strength and ingenuity.”