It’s not generally known but drivers haven’t been in control of their car’s engine for at least a decade. When they push down on the accelerator, the engine speeds up and so does the car – but it’s a computer that controls that. The physical cable that used to connect the gas pedal to the engine is gone.
Cars have drive-by-wire throttle control now – which means you have the illusion of control.
Similarly, it is an illusion that you are engaging Drive or Reverse when you move a new or recent-model-year vehicle’s automatic transmission selector from Park to Drive or Reverse. There is no longer a cable connecting that lever to the transmission. A signal is sent to the computer and it tells the transmission to engage Drive or Reverse. In many new vehicles, this is made more explicit via buttons you push to engage Park – as well as the other ranges.
Steering is controlled electrically in most new vehicles, too.
The next – and last – thing is the brakes.
Brakes began as mechanical and then became hydraulic-mechanical but they have always been physical in the sense that when the driver pushed down on the brake pedal, the driver’s right foot directly engaged the brakes via mechanical-hydraulic pressure, which caused the brake calipers to clamp down on the brake rotors (or the brake pads to push out against the brake drums) creating the friction that slowed the car down.
Electronic controls began to be added back in the 1980s, when anti-lock system went mass-market. An electro-hydraulic pump was used to automatically apply – and release – braking pressure such that no matter how hard the driver pushed down on the brake pedal, the brakes would not lock up and the vehicle would not skid.
This was hailed as a huge “safety” advance. But things have unintended consequences. People no longer had to learn how to brake for themselves (without locking up the brakes) so they drove faster than they were capable of driving safely. ABS can prevent a skid but not a wreck. ABS also had the unintended side effect of egging-on tailgating, because people were confident they (well, the car) could stop in time in time if the car ahead suddenly slowed down. Instead of skidding into the car ahead, they just hit it.
Over time, additional layers of electronica were added to facilitate traction/stability control, which uses braking pressure automatically applied to individual wheels to keep the vehicle’s “line” straight when it would otherwise slide – but braking systems have remained fundamentally mechanical-hydraulic, with braking pressure transferred via fluid in brake lines that is used to transfer force (fluid can’t be compressed) from the brake pedal to the calipers that clamp down on the rotors (and cause the brake shoes to expand against the drums, in drum brake systems) slowing the vehicle down.
This means that even if the ABS fails, you still have brakes. It also means that – fundamentally – you are the one in control of stopping your vehicle.
That is about to change.
Brake-by-wire is coming online.
It has been developed by Brembo – the company that is best-known for its high-performance braking components that are often the basis of upgraded OEM brake packages – has developed a brake-by-wire system called Sensify that disconnects the driver entirely, via electronically controlled brakes. Brembo claims “a leading global manufacturer” has already bought in and will be introducing the system in its production vehicles very soon.
That’s not quite a first, though.
Teslas already have electrically controlled brakes. Just as they have electric everything else, including door locks that have trapped people inside the vehicle when the electrics fritz out. Now the brakes can fritz out, too. And more than just that.
Sensify/drive-by-wire braking is touted as a technology that can (and will) make make brake force application “smoother.” It will absolutely make brake systems cheaper – for the manufacturers (i.e., the car companies) by eliminating the need to plumb hydraulic lines during vehicle assembly. It’ll be “plug and play” – just like drive by wire throttle and drive-wire gear selection.
Of course, it won’t be cheaper when something glitches – because you’ll probably be unable to figure out why it’s glitched without access to the code and the equipment needed to get the electronica working again. Glitches will inevitably happen while people are driving, too.
What is certain to happen is that it will take control over braking away from the driver.
It will be software driven – and electronically controlled. The car will brake – and stop – when it decides to brake (and stop). This will work excellently when the time comes to implement the already mandated automatic emergency braking (AEB) “technology” that all new cars will have to have come 2029, which is only a little more than two model years away from today.
Brembo’s press release says Sensify was “engineered to support a wide range of advanced vehicle architectures, from next -generation driver assistance systems to fully autonomous applications.”
It is “designed to orchestrate the entire corner ecosystem, it supports safer mobility, while paving the way for the next generation of software – defined vehicles, reflecting our long -term purpose of shaping a Zero Accident Future.”
That is to say, a zero (human) driver future.
Well, “drivers” will be allowed to sit in the left seat. But it will be the “software driven” vehicle that controls the drive.
AEB is – like all the rest of this stuff – being pushed as another (the ultimate) “safety” advance. It is in fact another – the last – control advance. Electric/drive-by-wire brakes will cement completely the operational control over cars that has been advancing piece-by-piece over the past several decades. At which point, the illusion that people are still in control of their cars will be dissipated.
By which time, of course, it will already be too late to do much about it.
. . .
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 make make brake force application smoother.){kind=link}
How’s that “brake by wire” crap workin’ out for us? Here’s a clue:
‘Hyundai Motor is recalling 421,078 vehicles in the U.S. over a software error that may cause an unexpected application of brakes, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday.
‘The recall covers certain 2025-2026 model Santa Cruz, Tucson, Tucson Hybrid, and Tucson Plug-In Hybrid Electric vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said there have been four crashes linked to the issue.
‘Four people were injured in those crashes, the agency said.
‘The auto safety agency said that a software error in the front cameras of the vehicles may cause the forward collision avoidance system to prematurely activate and cause the application of brakes, increasing the risk of a crash. Dealers will update the front camera software at no cost, the regulator added.’ — Reuters
https://tinyurl.com/5c32sw65
No front cameras; no problem! Smash useless tech … before it smashes you.
Remember, this all is a feature, not a bug.
Anything which enables remote monitoring and/or control will be used by those in power, those who THINK they’re in power, and those that want to be That the Biden Administration clamored for new cars sold in America to have a “kill switch”, and OM and the Republicvnts have done nothing to rescind that. The present ability to monitor what Americans speak, write, read, and hear, as well as movements, and financial transactions, let alone to INTERDICT, very often without a Court Order or Probable Cause, at times with DEADLY results, has become the stuff of which a Gestapo, Stasi, or KGB agent could but have a wet dream!
Well, there was one guy who tried to rescind it, but he couldn’t be tolerated.
Is there redundancy in the electrics? Your hydraulic brake system since the late ‘60s (?) is split starting at the master cylinder. A leak or failure still allows for a stop via the other hydraulic circuit although a longer distance required. Another plus is a hand lever mechanical emergency/parking brake for a last ditch looong stop, but you still have a chance to get stopped before a catastrophic incident.
So, from a reliability standpoint there should be two, preferably three circuits. Wire fractures, ground gets corroded, sensor fritzes, should still have an intact alternate path to a successful stop. I’ll use the 777 jetliner as an example. Three “lanes” in the fly by wire flight control system and the computer system constantly monitoring for “glitches” and will toss a flakey “lane” when it detects bad data. Also the pilots can kick out the FCC if the controls don’t respond as they expect, still FBW but the computer can’t over ride their inputs. Lastly, if the worst case happens and there is a power failure the horizontal stabilizer and a spoiler on each wing has a mechanical connection back to the pilots so they can maintain level flight ‘till they get the power back online.
I’ll be a “pass” if there is no or limited redundancy in the Bembo system.
While Brembo’s system is new because it’s fully electric, some cars have had brake-by-wire for years. I think the first was a Mercedes AMG roadster of some kind from a good 15 years ago, I coached someone who had one at the track.
Another notable example is the C8 corvette. They have brake by wire because, as the the brakes get hot, they need you to compensate for that, and since people are now incompetent at driving, you have to do this for them. The system will create a consistent pedal feel, until it can’t compensate anymore, then you have no brakes and no warning because you didn’t feel the pedal getting soft.
I don’t mind some of these systems. Throttle by wire generally doesn’t affect the car negatively, and you never have to worry about a throttle cable getting dirty and sticking, and it’s super reliable. Throttle cable or electric, you’re still pushing against a spring both ways, so no loss of feel. ABS, too, is a net good. At the track, I don’t like it, but on the street, unpredictably hitting someone’s dripped oil or coolant is less of an issue with it. If you brake properly, and find the slip threshold, the ABS doesn’t actually kick in. It does help the clueless, hamfisted gorillas who have no finesse on the street.
Now, do we have so many hamfisted gorillas driving because these systems made them incompetent, or is it the other way around? Dunno.
This morning, while driving the Firebird in to work, after stopping at a stop sign, went to take off and the throttle pedal went to the floor. My first thought was I snapped the cable. I coasted over to the side of the road, got out and opened the hood. The cable end was just dangling there. The little linchpin that holds the cable end onto the stud was gone.
Looked around for it. There it was down in the valley of the intake. I have the RPM Air Gap intake, so it has the raised runners with the open valley below. I had to stick my hand down in there and try to fish that little pin out. Burnt my hand a couple times but finally got it. I bent the pin with my teeth to try to make it a tighter fit, replaced it and back on the road.
The adventures of daily driving a 50 year old car! Still better than anything new.
I’m starting to see videos of people locating and pulling their car modems to stop the connection. I’m hoping this trend increases. You can also just pull the fuse, but it’s a bit tricky to find out which fuse it is.
I’m all for disconnecting from the hive, does anyone know for sure if that will cause the car to shutdown? Might depend on the brand and year; I need to buy one new(er) car so my wife will have something reliable after I depart this earth but don’t want it to be “connected”.
I wish I could find the video I recently say, but it was a guy with a Roush F150. He found the modem behind the passenger seat and removed it entirely. It disabled his “connected” features and GPS, but did not cause a check engine light and did not otherwise affect its performance. If you Chatgpt your car it will give you a pretty good initial description of what features you will lose and whether you can simply disable it with just pulling the fuse. I would research it much further though just to make sure.
“ Teslas already have electric brakes” EP
There’s just so much stupidity on this supposedly automotive site it makes my head spin.
No Tesla’s don’t have electric brakes.
They still have hydraulic brakes at all four corners.
Apparently the distinction between regenerate braking and hydraulic brakes is too much to comprehend or characterize properly when there is an agenda of fear that needs to be advanced.
Tesla brakes are in fact electrically (or electronically) controlled. You’ve obtusely missed the author’s point, which is that the driver does not directly control the brakes on a Tesla.
Chill out a bit, Ken. Some of us can be just a pedantic, like how one might show his “stupidity” by improperly using an apostrophe when trying to express a plural rather than possession. Apparently, this concept is “too much to comprehend” for you. 🙂
Wake the fuck up moron.
Read English. There is a big difference between electric brakes and electronically controlled brakes such as ABS.
Distinctions matter. You have no idea what you’re talking about and simping for Eric.
“Wake the fuck up moron. Read English.”
As a free speech absolutist, I believe everyone, including those with stunted mental abilities, have the right to call people morons while ignoring proper English grammar.
And yet no one has disputed that Tesla doesn’t have electric brakes.
Ah yes – chastised by the grammar police.
By the very same guy that can’t properly maintain his basic carbureted car to be reliable.
I no be da grammar police. I enjoy grammar anarchy when the situation calls for it. It’s just that when someone directs another to “read English”, it should probably be written properly.
Parts fail on a 50 year old car. When they do, what happens next is what separates the men from the Ken.
Touché!
Ken, you’re a sweet guy.
‘It is “designed to orchestrate the entire corner ecosystem”‘ — eric
Stop right there. When I hear highfalutin bullshit like “corner ecosystem,” I reach for my revolver. This smarmy corporatese probably was coined by the same folks who gave us Boeing’s defective MCAS fly-by-wire system, which killed 346 people.
My vehicles don’t have no “corner ecosystem,” nor will I tolerate the presence of such.
Death to the auto industry.
Reichsmarschall Goring more or less embarrassed the Allied prosecution at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1945 and 1946. He corrected a plethora of mistranslations and gave frank testimony, some of which implicated he and fellow German defendants, but in many instances also pointed out the member nations of the Tribunal had done likewise. When he’d been taken into custody in May 1945, and put in the charge of US Army Colonel Andrus C Burton and his jail staff, the Colonel was disgusted at Goring being hugely obese and a drug addict. Burton ordered for Goring a special diet and to allow him to exercise as much as he wanted; by the start of the trial in October 1945, the former Luftwaffe chief had already dropped nearly eighty pounds, was just about weaned from the morphine, and many former associates noted that his once-sharp mental faculties had returned. One of his most famous remarks, which likely he didn’t originate, was: “When I hear the term “Kultur” (culture), I reach for my Browning”.
Excellent anecdote!
One perceives a possible allegory, limning the exquisite dilemma of the MFOB … though his 2 am tweets suggest a pharmaceutical other than morphine.
The scream of the ambulance is sounding in my ears
Come on now, Sister Morphine, how long have I been lying here?
What am I doing in this place?
Why does the doctor have no face?
Oh, I can’t crawl across the floor
Can’t you see, Sister Morphine, I’m just trying to score
— Rolling Stones, Sister Morphine (1971)
Throttle by wire wasn’t when you were disconnected from controlling your engine. Any car using fuel injection means you’re giving a suggestion to the engine to increase RPM. Your throttle pedal could use a cable to pull the throttle body butterfly open, which is increasing the amount the air the engine is allowed to consume, as generally determined by a volume air flow sensor. The throttle position sensor reads this and the ECU decides to lengthen the injector pulse to maintain the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio for the engine to actually run. If the position sensor or injectors or ECU aren’t working you can pull all day on your mechanical cable and nothing’s going to happen. Going to a throttle by wire and mass airflow sensor (so no clunky volume sensor with a flapper door) simplified the system.
Trailers have used electric brakes for decades. They work just fine, it’s easier to get workable given all the various configurations of towing trucks and trailer types you may encounter.
The windmill Luddites are tilting at is misplaced. It’s not whether it’s pneumatic, hydraulic or electric, those are the conduits to transfer energy. The worry is control and more importantly who’s doing the control. They have been able to shut down your car remotely in theory for a long time. Basically from the moment any computer installed and mobile data was available. How it’s done isn’t a major hindrance, there’s valves and solenoids that function on hydraulic and vacuum/pneumatic systems just as there are for electrical.
Mick: Using your criteria, you’re also not in control of a carbureted vehicle, because you can pull the cable on the carb, but if the jets are not large enough to supply enough fuel, it’s merely a suggestion. The injectors and ECU are no different in principle from jetting. The problem that now exists is that cars are less and less responsive to the “suggestions” of the driver and more on an algorithm which is encrypted, and worse yet, which is to be remotely controlled at some point. It’s not binary, where one either has control or doesn’t have control. It’s a continuum and the trend is less and less driver control. You admit all of this in your 3rd paragraph, yet you arrogantly employ the ad hominem of “windmill luddites.” What these “windmill luddites” know is the new technologies provide the means for this loss of control, while providing little or no benefit to the driver. I know this because I own and have driven old and new cars.
One last point, electric trailer brakes are 100% controllable by the driver through a “decades” old dash-mounted brake controller.
‘You arrogantly employ the ad hominem of “windmill luddites”‘ — Mister Liberty to Mick
Ned Ludd was like a father to me. But these days, we regressives call ourselves Lo-Teks:
‘The Lo-Teks are a subculture of tribe-like people who live in hideouts suspended by cables in the Sprawl’s geodesic domes. They are, as their name infers, a low-tech society, and the only tech they have are the synthesizers and amplifiers on the Killing Floor.
‘The Killing Floor seems to be a sacred arena to the Lo-Teks. It is a plate of corrugated metals suspended by cables, and hooked up with synthesizer and amplifiers to produce a low, electronic beat when combatants move on it, causing it to vibrate. The Killing Floor is surrounded by cables and metal, so Lo-Teks can sit around it and watch. Before Molly Millions and the Yakuza hitman fight on it, two Lo-Teks are on it fighting.
‘The Lo-Teks are identifiable by their tattoos all over their bodies, and their maw like mouths, which have been surgically changed to resemble the maw and tongue of a dog. The only Lo-Tek identified by name is Dog.’
Don’t be dissin’ the Lo-Teks, Mick dog. Otherwise, see ya on the Killing Floor.
That press release from Brembo makes me want to puke. Who talks like that? Nobody talks like that. Only PR and “marketing” types whose title should be “Turd Polisher” make such BS utterances.
And what controls Sensify? Why, fairy farts and unicorn poop. We’ve long since reached Peak PR BS…just make it stop.
Bill Hicks Marketing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h9wStdPkQY
I will not pretend to know, Eric, so I will ask: Why the change from mechanical-hydraulic to this “brake-by-wire” crap? It seems that (in a note of irony) the more car makers (and government regulations) change to electronics, computer systems, etc. for running vehicles, the LESS safe they are? As horrible as drivers are here, I would trust them over a computer any day. At the least the human might have two cents in their heart to be sorry for being a horrible driver (or not). You can at least sue the driver! A computer is, well, a computer. Who will be accountable for screwing up the programming in the computer that runs your vehicle? And with all the rapid advancements, at what point will they demand/install AI into our vehicles? Hell, we are nearly there, with the kill switch coming, the Subaru Eye Sight you have covered. Never mind the tracking in engines for the last 30 years or so. The implementation of braking one does not control makes the horrors of what could happen (steering off the road, into a semi, on icy roads) seem a whole lot less like fiction, and more like our impending reality.
Ask the M5 computer, responsible for at least 485 Starfleet dead in 2267.
You’ll know the fix is in when the companies that manufacture these systems are protected from lawsuits just like the vaxxine companies are.
AEB — it’s the ‘anti-accident vaccine’ for your car!
Brought to you by the Pfizer/Brembo saaaaafety ecosystem. /snark