I was thinking about exactly this possibility just a few weeks ago. Always nice to see a new, innovative technology that allows higher granularity in control, without pushing additional bloat or further limiting other areas of user controls..
To anyone wondering this essentially turns your brake pedal into a gas-like brake pedal.
Now what I'm wondering is, can we tie this all to the brake-light brightness?
The new tech is a Brake-by-Wire system controlled by a touch-sensitive pad.
I did my best to extract details from the article's mountain of seo fluff. I think Bosch is trying to maximize complexity of a safety-critical system by deeply integrating it into all the other bits of the car.
Okay. We do build war aircraft that way and they're awesome but they also need a steady stream of $billions to keep them flying.
My recommendation if Bosch wants to be a radical leader in auto tech, invent tactile controls and place them where they can be reached w/o taking eyes off of roads.
Then blow everyone away by inventing non-blinding headlights.
Terrible slop of an article that doesn’t say a single thing about why this new technology (brake-by-wire with a touch-sensitive pad) is better than existing approaches, other than it being “more sensitive.”
A lot of engineering of hydraulic brakes goes into minimising the pedal stroke, i.e. the distance the pedal moves when you press it hard. It makes it easier to control , supposedly. Also it's hard to tune the feel and response of hybrid braking systems where there's a transition between regenerative and hydraulic brakes. Maybe removing the mechanical link actually could simplify a few things.
Brake-by-wire sounds scary. In my current, recent-ish car, you can still control it - with more effort - if engine and/or electrics are out. I've had the experience of driving home with a suddenly failed alternator, watching one system after another report offline, until as I turned into my street, the power steering went too. But I was able to safely drive it to my driveway (with 7V remaining on the battery). I'd rather that cars stay that way, and not just because I'm a grumpy old man in training.
I do wonder about ABS and always have. If ABS can make the brakes not brake even as you fully stomp the pedal - is there a reasonably conceivable failure mode that would simply prevent you from braking despite perfectly good hydraulics and a stomped pedal?
> If ABS can make the brakes not brake even as you fully stomp the pedal - is there a reasonably conceivable failure mode that would simply prevent you from braking despite perfectly good hydraulics and a stomped pedal?
The answer is not simple, as it has changed over time.
Early anti-lock systems were so limited that the system would, indeed, fail to utilize the maximum possible braking force. This was known, and yet these were deployed, because the research said that maintaining directional control, the primary benefit of anti-lock, had greater safety value than the compromise of maximum braking performance.
Today, however, anti-lock is greatly improved, and anti-lock systems are capable of applying extremely high braking force, even to the point of exceeding thermal design limits (overheat) of the brake system components. The sensors are sampling at higher frequency, the braking models are far more accurate and the computers are faster in current vehicles. So current anti-lock can perform at near the absolute limit.
Further, current systems can actually detect panic. Drivers often fail to even use the full braking force available. Current vehicles can detect when sudden, high braking force is applied, switch into "emergency mode" and boost braking force beyond what the driver is demanding.
These features started appearing in the early 2000's. Nissan, for instance, introduced "Brake Assist" in 2001, with the 2002 the Altima redesign (L31 platform) and the Maxima. It has the "panic mode" behavior I've described.
I personally experienced this once about 15 years ago. Somehow I distracted myself, and when my attention returned I was closing with stopped vehicles at too high a speed and too little remaining distance. Collision was certain and my foot crushed the brake: pure panic, and I never let up. I came to a stop in a blessedly unoccupied left turn lane almost aligned with the stopped vehicles. I recall looking over my hood at the driver of the car I'd nearly hit: between us was a wisp of brake smoke drifting up from passenger fender. I could smell the brakes. The anti-lock did that. If I had had no anti-lock, all directional control would have been lost and my maneuver into the unoccupied lane would have been impossible. If the anti-lock had not applied as much force as it did, I would have been in the intersection, possibly getting t-boned.
So they're pretty good today, and I appreciate modern anti-lock designs.
Tesla's move to unboxed model means they won't be able to have hydraulic lines. 48V means more power, but still need something like 50A per brake disc, IMO non starter for Tesla. Is it going to be batteries/supercapacitors or some other novel brake design.
I do hope the pressure-sensitive pad has some “give” in it to provide physical feedback to the driver. Way back when the F-16 first began flying in production, the side stick was rigid, and more than one pilot would return with bruised arm muscles from pulling as hard as possible wondering if they had more available. While braking in a car doesn’t have the same frequency of needing full deflection (short of having to ride with my wife’s friend driving), there’s likely to be some similar discomfort from wondering how much more braking is available.
17 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 48.8 ms ] threadTo anyone wondering this essentially turns your brake pedal into a gas-like brake pedal.
Now what I'm wondering is, can we tie this all to the brake-light brightness?
I did my best to extract details from the article's mountain of seo fluff. I think Bosch is trying to maximize complexity of a safety-critical system by deeply integrating it into all the other bits of the car.
Okay. We do build war aircraft that way and they're awesome but they also need a steady stream of $billions to keep them flying.
My recommendation if Bosch wants to be a radical leader in auto tech, invent tactile controls and place them where they can be reached w/o taking eyes off of roads.
Then blow everyone away by inventing non-blinding headlights.
I do wonder about ABS and always have. If ABS can make the brakes not brake even as you fully stomp the pedal - is there a reasonably conceivable failure mode that would simply prevent you from braking despite perfectly good hydraulics and a stomped pedal?
The answer is not simple, as it has changed over time.
Early anti-lock systems were so limited that the system would, indeed, fail to utilize the maximum possible braking force. This was known, and yet these were deployed, because the research said that maintaining directional control, the primary benefit of anti-lock, had greater safety value than the compromise of maximum braking performance.
Today, however, anti-lock is greatly improved, and anti-lock systems are capable of applying extremely high braking force, even to the point of exceeding thermal design limits (overheat) of the brake system components. The sensors are sampling at higher frequency, the braking models are far more accurate and the computers are faster in current vehicles. So current anti-lock can perform at near the absolute limit.
Further, current systems can actually detect panic. Drivers often fail to even use the full braking force available. Current vehicles can detect when sudden, high braking force is applied, switch into "emergency mode" and boost braking force beyond what the driver is demanding.
These features started appearing in the early 2000's. Nissan, for instance, introduced "Brake Assist" in 2001, with the 2002 the Altima redesign (L31 platform) and the Maxima. It has the "panic mode" behavior I've described.
I personally experienced this once about 15 years ago. Somehow I distracted myself, and when my attention returned I was closing with stopped vehicles at too high a speed and too little remaining distance. Collision was certain and my foot crushed the brake: pure panic, and I never let up. I came to a stop in a blessedly unoccupied left turn lane almost aligned with the stopped vehicles. I recall looking over my hood at the driver of the car I'd nearly hit: between us was a wisp of brake smoke drifting up from passenger fender. I could smell the brakes. The anti-lock did that. If I had had no anti-lock, all directional control would have been lost and my maneuver into the unoccupied lane would have been impossible. If the anti-lock had not applied as much force as it did, I would have been in the intersection, possibly getting t-boned.
So they're pretty good today, and I appreciate modern anti-lock designs.
"We will have steer by wire and brake by wire over my dead body." - former head of engineering at Chrysler.
Tesla's move to unboxed model means they won't be able to have hydraulic lines. 48V means more power, but still need something like 50A per brake disc, IMO non starter for Tesla. Is it going to be batteries/supercapacitors or some other novel brake design.