Jump to content
Do Not Sell My Personal Information


  • Join Toyota Owners Club

    Join Europe's Largest Toyota Community! It's FREE!

     

     

Nissan Will Put Drive-By-Wire In 2013 Cars


Raistlin
 Share

Recommended Posts

Nissan-Steer-By-Wire-1012-de.jpg

Amid a collective groan from driving enthusiasts everywhere, today Nissan announced that it plans to be first to put electronic steer-by-wire technology into production cars.

Replacing the rack and pinion with a mix of wires and processors, the Japanese automaker’s new system will control the tires independently from the steering inputs.

Nissan’s steer-by-wire system follows the same logic as the fly-by-wire systems found in aircraft (which have been controversial in their own right).

By processing steering inputs against a bevy of variables such as speed and vehicle direction, the process tries to correct for driver error—swing the wheel wildly, and the car turns subtly rather than careening off the road, because the computer system knows that's probably not what you intended.

Although enthusiasts refer to this as "video-game driving", arguing that it removes the driver’s connection to the road, it could lead to a safer future for everyday drivers.

In the event of a skid or a loss of control, for example, unless you’re experienced at driving on the limits of grip, there’s a good chance anything you do with the wheel could worsen the station. A steer-by-wire system circumvents those bad driver inputs, and uses data to keep your vehicle stable.

Fun or not, it’s the natural next step in automotive safety technologies, much in the same vein as anti-lock brakes and traction control.

According to Nissan, steer-by-wire will find it’s way into select models by its luxury brand Infiniti within the next year, and it’s not the only safety technology the company plans to implement.

Today Nissan also revealed its plans for an "Autonomous Emergency Steering System". Taking the fully electronic steering setup a step further, this system will warn the driver of a threat by suggesting evasive action and, if the driver doesn't respond, automatically take control of the steering to avoid the threat.

Add on to that last week’s announcement of a system that corrects for "pedal misapplication" and it seems Nissan is suddenly pushing headlong into the forefront of technology to save drivers from ourselves.

"The ultimate goal is to reduce fatalities involving our brands to 'substantially zero,'" Tetsuya Iijima said in a release. "In our minds, there is no such thing as an acceptable fatality."

That plan appears to entail the incremental removal of the biggest variable Nissan can’t account for: the driver.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seriously? This just seems like all kinds of bad idea to me... The fact that it decides whether to accept or ignore what you are doing is just icing on the automotive accident cake!

If you make a sudden turn of the wheel to, say, avoid a child running out into the road it'll ignore it and just gently turn into the child?

They had a thing like this on Tomorrow's World some time back, but that replaced the steering wheel with a joystick so at least there was some reason.

If the wheel is still there, I don't see what advantage of having steer-by-wire is, other than more stuff to go wrong...!

If Nissan want to take control away from the driver, they should partner with Google and build a fully autonomous car; That way when there is an accident, you can't still blame the driver when it's the car doing the driving anyway!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Blimey "Tommorows World" ................blast from the past there Cyker :lol:

I liked the way Raymond Baxter used to point at everything with his fountain pen...........very British

Kingo :thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Latest Deals

Toyota Official Store for genuine Toyota parts & accessories

Disclaimer: As the club is an eBay Partner, The club may be compensated if you make a purchase via eBay links

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share






×
×
  • Create New...




Forums


News


Membership


  • Insurance
  • Support