The Tripoli was created in the OTO (Livorno) Steelworks of Terni in 1918, but the Italian front (World War I) wasn't compatible with armored cars due to terrain and the vehicle was instead destined for use in the Italian colonies.

[2] A first batch of 12 armored cars was sent to Libya, where the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops of Italian Cyrenaica and that of Italian Tripolitania were engaged in the reconquest of territories lost during the Italo-Turkish War.

[3] The Tripoli continued to be employed in colonial policing duties until the mid-1930s, by which time it had been outnumbered and outclassed so was relegated to reserve status.

The outbreak of the Second World War caught the Royal Army short of motorized vehicles, so much so that the armored bodies of 6-8 surviving Tripoli were installed on the chassis of Fiat-SPA 38R trucks.

[4] These vehicles were assigned anti-aircraft duties for the "Babini" special armored brigade, established on November 25, 1940, but all were lost in the initial months of the North African campaign.