Taking a page from the world of aviation, Nissan Motor Co. plans to enter the "by-wire" world and control the steering of a future Infiniti vehicle with electronic signals.
The decision to bring steer-by-wire to a production vehicle is a major one for the automobile industry because it lays the foundation for eventual elimination of the mechanical components that now connect the driver to a vehicle's tires.
"There are a lot of advantages to this," Infiniti spokesman Kyle Bazemore told Design News. "It enhances the driving experience. And in the future, after consumer acceptance of the technology, we could theoretically do away with the mechanicals and save the weight."
Nissan's next-generation steering employs a steering angle sensor at the steering wheel, three ECUs for control, electric motors to power the rack, and a steering force actuator near the driver to retain the vehicle's "steering feel."
The next-generation steering system, as Nissan calls it, works by endowing the steering wheel with sensors that read the desired steering angle. Data from the sensors is sent to one of three electronic control units (ECUs), which activate electric motors on the vehicle's steering rack. In contrast, conventional steering uses a direct mechanical connection to the rack-and-pinion.
In truth, the new Nissan system won't eliminate the mechanical connection to the driver. Instead, it will use the mechanical connection as a redundant system, only in cases of extreme emergency. If, for example, a power supply conks out or all of the ECUs fail, it will employ a back-up clutch to mechanically connect the steering wheel to the tires. "The clutch is disengaged 999,999 times out of a million," Bazemore told us. "But the steering shaft is still there, just in case."
Nissan said steer-by-wire will enhance the driving experience. When it reaches the market late next year, it will eliminate some of the vibration from rough road surfaces and it will minutely adjust tire angles to compensate for crosswinds and sloped surfaces. At the same time, it will enable drivers to "feel" the road. Grip information, such as slipperiness, will be transferred back to a steering force actuator that will allow the steering wheel to retain some of its original feel. "Theoretically, you could have no steering feel at all, but that would not be good for drivers," Bazemore said. "That's why we dialed some -- but not all -- of the steering feel back into the system."
If you want to experience just how difficult anti-intuitive steering can be, try this experiment on a bicycle. After you get rolling along a straight clear path, grb the right-hand grip with your left hand and try to kep going straight. BUt be certain that your helmet is on correctly before doing this experiment.
Going to a non-intuitive steering method could be a real disaster.
I can certainly agree that maintenance and proper repair must be concerns relative to this technology. The days of the shade-tree-mechanic are over forever with systems as sophisticated as this one. I think back-up systems are an absolute must until enough reliability data and "road experience" are available.
Tell you what: I'll buy if I see it win a race in a major event. Any of the big ones: Indycar, NASCAR, F1, F2000, GT, Paris-Dakar, whatever. If you show me a race team using drive by wire for a season and winning, then I'll buy it.
If the technology is so great then show me. Any race team would love to shave weight, reduce parts and 'enhance' the driver's road feel. Also the drive-by-wire could deliver a lot of data to the race team computers. I can see how it would be a huge advantage.
I am not sure if there is a better way to steer a car than using the steering wheel. Consider that it never gets lost, and it is positioned so that it can be turned by either hand. Also, the motion is intuitive to almost everybody-turn the wheel right to turn right, about as easy to figure out as possible. If there were an electrical control for it, we might wind up like we are with seatbelt buckles, with a bunch of different kinds, and some of them are really TRASH, in that they are hard to connect and impossible to release wearing heavy gloves. Just think, they all started out just like the seatbelt buckles in airplanes.
Steering could wind up being a function on that same stupid big red button that is used for start and stop on some inferior brands of cars.
It won't be long and we can finally drive a car using the X-box remote. In all seriousness though, I wonder if this technology might open up the doors to a better way for drivers to control their vehicles.
I agree there needs to be someway to get the wheels to turn if things go wrong. Locking straight until the broken wire is fixed is just unacceptable on something like a car.
Steer by wire allows getting rid of the engine driven hydraulic pump, but so does electrically assisted power steering. Totally removing the steering gear as it now exists gets rid of a bunch of fairly precision parts and allows the use of a much cheaper position servo system, since it does not need to be accurate because drivers go by what the car does, not where the wheel is. Completely blind drivers are a different case, though.
Drive by wire would also get rid of the strong supports for the steering wheel, since the driver is only sending a position command, probably to a computer. Would you want a computer deciding that a sharp swerve to avoid hitting someone was an unsafe move, and not make it?, or refuse to swerve around a broken bottle in the roadway? And WE KNOW that the programmers at Nissan are all "much smarter than we are". So drive by wire is still fine for planes and trains, although I understand that current Diesel engines do have a totally manual means of stopping and shutting down available.
I could be wrong, but I believe one of the big advantages of steer-by-wire right now lies in the manufacturing differences between left-hand drive and right-hand drive. Right now, that's a big change, going from left to right to accommodate sale in other countries. If you take away the mechanicals, though, the manufacturing change is no big deal. For that matter, you could put the steering wheel in the back seat, or you could use a joystick to drive the car, and that wouldn't be a very big deal, either.
It seems that all of those commenting don't like the concept of steer by wire for a number of different reasons. And all of the reasons presented do appear to be quite valid.
Of course the reason that Nissan wants to sell it is because it reduces the cost to build the vehicle, not because of any improvement that it offers. But that would never sell, so they need to make up some tale about how wonderful it would be.
I really don't like it at all when people or companies lie to me.
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