:lol: A mechanical backup to an electronic system?
Did you read the op? It has a clutch that will engage as backup.
Lawyers have already taken care of that problem, cars are now designed to hit pedestrians:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/taking-the-hit-how-pedestrian-protection-regs-make-cars-fatter-feature
Besides what responsible parent would let there child roam free without a GPS chip implant that can communicate with your car’s sat nav?
The new Boxster has electric assist:
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2013-porsche-boxster-s-test-review
I’m going to stick to buying cars from the late 60s early 70s from now on.
the whole system was working great until we hit snow and then it went nuts.
The only thing on your list that my DD or fun car has is fuel injection.
Amidoinitrite?
I think so.
I completely agree with the above statement. I appreciate the hard work our engineers are doing to make our roads that much safer, but why mess with something that isn’t broken. the whole steering by wire sounds too sketchy for my liking. the fact that if the car completely fails you in an electronic sense no matter how much back up systems you have you are fucked. I personally would rather have a mechanical link to all the vital systems in the car, especially things that determine if I’m going to crash into a wall or not.
That’s the only gripe I have with the auto industry. day by day, as a driver, we are losing the connection between us and the car. yes, it’ll make you go faster around the corner but don’t think highly of your self.
I’ll stick to my kouki for now.
for people afraid of this, I suggest you don’t fly on a commercial airliner…
That was my first thought, but a plane has open air to ‘make mistakes’ in. A car is travelling at high speed in very close proximity to other cars and random obstacles. The only time this could be comparable are at the moments surrounding takeoff/landing.
So we are debating the margin for error if your going 65mph vs 600mph
A plane won’t run into something over a small mistake. A car will. Not to mention that commercial and military aircraft flight controls are inspected, tested, and repaired/overhauled on a regular basis to avoid problems like that. When you give these types of things to the consumer, it’s up to them as to how they truly maintain it. (which usually isn’t well)
And they have super redundancy.(sp)
I agree with your comments.
Has anyone heard of anything happening with drive by wire? Accidents from WOT or it doing something wacky in traffic and rear ending another car?
However this isn’t really a fair comparison I assume it defaults to closed.
The only way to save ~20k people per year is to prevent them from driving themselves into wrecks.
Its super shitty to imagine not being able to drive, but I would gladly turn over my commute to a computer.
Then I would get a automatic creeper conversion van with a bathroom and shower so that I can stay in bed 15 minutes longer.
The day is coming to where cars will have auto pilots better than real drivers.
It will probably only take a human generation or two before people forget how to drive.
The all-electronic system, however, was noticeable right from the start. Turning the wheel resulted in extremely direct and immediate motion of the front wheels— it felt almost like the 1:1 ratio of a go-cart. Turn the wheel a fraction, and you feel the car steer just that much. No slop, no over-assisted feeling, just really direct steering. As speed increased, the brain of the system added a bit more play and a modified steering ratio, since at highway speeds you won’t want the very quick and direct steering of lower speeds.
steer with a joystick, saab did that over 20 years ago…1992 was a sweet year
http://www.saabsunited.com/2009/11/the-saab-9000-drive-by-wire-joystick-project.html
{EDIT} who bought saab in the last bankruptcy? would it have been cheaper than re-developing something they already did?
Chevy Malibus from a few years back have electronic power steering. It’s absolutely horrible. There is so little feedback that I would actually call it dangerous. I think older weaker people can appreciate it, but as I said, It’s way to easy to move with little effort. It’s also problematic.
moar info:
1 Steering-Force Sensor
Playing two roles, this unit sends commands to the control modules and acts as the driver’s feedback source by varying resistance to the wheel.
2 Clutch
Most of the time it’s open. Faults in the electronics force it closed, creating a solid mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the rack.
3 Control Modules
This trio controls the electric-assist motors and the steering-force sensor. They also act as redundancies; you know, for safety.
4 Steering-Assist Motors
Two of these smaller motors are cheaper than one large one. Plus, this arrangement frees some space for a low-slung longitudinal engine.
So-called “by-wire” controls, which replace a mechanical connection between driver and automobile with an electronic signal, have become commonplace. Electronic throttles are now ubiquitous, braking is increasingly dependent on electronic circuits, and even window switches have become computer controlled. Steering systems haven’t gone completely by-wire for good reason: It’s a little scary to imagine front wheels that may or may not respond to the driver’s inputs, depending on a computer’s whim.
But Nissan’s upcoming steer-by-wire (SBW) system includes a fail-safe clutch in its column. In *normal driving situations, this clutch is disengaged, but if one of the three control modules detects a fault, the clutch snaps shut and the steering acts as a conventional, electrically assisted rack-and-pinion system. The clutch also engages when the engine shuts off, so if one of the first SBW-equipped cars [likely the Infiniti Q50 (pictured below)] fails to start, the owner can still steer the car while pushing it.
Two assist motors mounted at 90 degrees at each end of the rack, plus a steering-force sensor, comprise the SBW’s other components. The steering-force *sensor reports the driver’s desired steering angle to the assist motors by way of the control modules.
Nissan’s stated benefits: Steer-by-wire eliminates steering-system flex and lash, so every driver input yields a direct action at the road. Also—and enthusiasts won’t love this part—SBW completely insulates the driver from road impacts. In a controlled demonstration, we hit a pothole at 30 mph in an SBW-equipped Infiniti G37 test mule. The steering wheel didn’t budge. No wiggle, no shimmy, not even a small jerk. Steering kickback, a common mid-corner occurrence on imperfect pavement, is also eliminated.
A by-wire column can infinitely vary the steering ratio, whereas conventional racks are limited in their variability. Increased safety is another potential benefit. Current stability-control systems yaw the car by slowing individual wheels with brake actuation. Varying the steering angle independently of the steering wheel is another means of stabilizing a slip-sliding car. And a by-wire system could automatically countersteer against a road crown, to make driving, as the Japanese might say, more pleasing to your life force.
While the electronic isolation increases comfort, SBW’s steering feedback redefines artificial, in that it is 100 percent replicated. On-center wander, however, is nil. Remember, electric-assist steering wasn’t all rainbows and lollipops when it rolled out a few years ago. Our December 2012 steering test [“Losing Touch?”] revealed how far electric power steering has advanced in driver satisfaction, and it might take *Nissan a few generations to produce SBW worthy of our approval.
can this possibly be cheaper to manufacture than a steering shaft and a rack?
Next thing they’ll add force-feedback to the steering wheel like a video game controller 