http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../61106011/1065

If this technology will make it to cars, it looks like we are in for some incredible performance from brakes...
Any thoughts ?

 

Very interesting concept, at least by Sieman's telling. If it actually works as advertised, it could rank up there with DSG trannies as two VERY significant new "mechatronic" technologies that will significantly improve vehicle safety, performance and efficiency simultaneously.

The ability to far more fully integrate the braking functions into a car's overall vehicle dynamics electronics (ABS, DSC, TCS, etc) is facinating. Seems like all these vehicle eletronic systems are quickly becoming integrated into unified, interactive systems with many interesting results.

How the vehicle drives in a qualitative sense can be made much more finely tunable beyond the few discrete settings you now get on, say Ferrari, Volvo Rs, Subaru SpecBs, etc. A whole vehicle could be made to subtly "tense up" when driving fast and "relax" when cruising on the highway and a veritable infinite intermediate driving modes, or "moods."

In a tensed up performance mode, the shocks would firm up, throttle response would increase, steering loads and feedback would increase, brake loads and response time would increase, DSG shifting would be faster and sharper, etc., giving a far sharper car than might otherwise be practical in a street car. The Volvo R's three-step adjustable shocks go from nearly cushy on its softest setting to something you'd probably only want on a smooth track on its hardest.

In a relaxed cruise mode, basically all the opposite would happen in that everything would slow down and soften up for ride comfort and economy.

Detection of possible emergency situation would immediately bring on a whole slew of counterveiling responses by the cars to enhance safety. And being fully electronic, the potential flexibility of these systems would be immense, dwarfing anything you might now get by a simple ECU reflash.

While some may decry this layer of electronics between man and machine, and this can and often has been clumsily executed (Mercedes electronic brakes for example), the potential is for an extremely adaptable, fluid, and, oddly, almost organic response and interaction between car and driver. I think we're just on the verge of this potential revolution, so it will be facinating to see how it plays out.

 

Someone loves himself...

 

Wow I want some of those!

 

Ehhh... brakes are only as good as the tires they are attatched to. Although while skimming through the article "weigh less" did jump out. Wires or hydraulic fluid, its all the same, but the real issue is cost. If it adds significantly to the cost of the car while only providing minimal improvement, then IMO its not a very relavent technology (other than to give bench racers another tool in the toolbox)

 

This is my favorite part:

"In tests, a prototype with the wedge brakes regularly required less than half the distance to come to a complete stop than the prototype with the standard brakes, a company official said."

 

As in, favorite (yeah right) or favorite (awesome)?

 

Big advantage I can see might be quicker responding ABS systems, being electronic it would be able to better sense the braking threshold for that particular road surface. Rather than current generation ABS systems that modulate between 100% ON and 100% OFF very quickly, this system would modulate much smaller increments, keeping pressure on the brakes at all times, just letting off a little to keep traction.

 

I don't believe it. Ever hear of a little thing called tires? Brakes are only as good as the tires arund them...

 

i think you missed the point...as this is true about tires...but these brakes allow a better sensing of the traction with the road allowing the tires to brake at their full potential or closer to it.

exactly the same situation as a car with equal tires with ABS and non ABS brakes.

 

It's like ABS squared

 

Half the distance sounds a bit overblown, but I can certainly see it significantly improving upon a hydraulic ABS system's performance.

 

They sound good, but IMO let the technology "mature" a bit given MB's little disaster with their electronic brake system. I'd like to know what kind of fail-safe is built in if, for whatever reason, the car loses power while on the road or something to that effect.

 

Remember that a lot of the braking distance is the time it takes for the hydraulic pressure to move the caliper onto the disc. This system gets rid of that delay, which probably adds 10% to stopping distance at 70mph.

I would be more worried about the discs. That is going to be some heat build up is a shorter time, we will be needing that F1 technology in everyday cars soon!