Brake-by-wire

Brake-By-Wire Is Coming To Your Car

I'm of two minds on this. I'm all for anything that enhances automobile performance -- yeah, and I suppose safety as well, though being who I am that's of very little importance to me. Steer-by-wire, throttle-by-wire, adjustable suspension; all those things have added measurably to the performance of modern sports cars and sedans. But what about brake-by-wire? Erm... maybe. In some situations. But performance braking is an art, even more so than steering a car.

With conventional brakes, you can feel the back-pressure from the master cylinder and feel the heat fade in a hard braking situation -- say, on approaching the entry point to a high-speed curve -- which your brain automatically collates with the changes in both lateral and directional g-forces sensed by the fluid movement in your inner ears. I'm concerned that when you lose that portion of tactile feedback with the master cylinder, you're not going to be able to effectively "read" the braking effort in real time. The article talks about a warning light on the dash; I can't imagine anything less useful in a performance braking scenario than a blinking light.

I'm certain that for straight line braking in emergency situations, four-wheel brake-by-wire will be a huge step up for passenger car safety. But for performance driving? Well, let's put it this way: FIA adopted it for Formula One cars a few seasons back -- on the rear brakes only. The front brakes, which provide 90% of the braking effort, remain conventional. Now why do you suppose they did that...