AUTOWEEK did a story on the Bose Active suspension a couple of months ago. The concept is not new.....it was tried briefly on the 1991 Infiniti Q45A ...but it was heavy, expensive, mechanically complex, and not well-received by the public, so it was dropped. Not many manufacturers really have shown a lot of interst in it since then.
But the current Bose system is very interesting. It is still too expensive for everyday production, but we may see it in the future if it can be made price-effective on a daily basis.

 

They should have called it another name. "BOSE" suspension system doesnt sound so cool. Should have left the BOSE name to their sound systems.

 

Popular Science had an article on it last month.

 

riding on electrons.... please check it out
this new suspension us AMAZING!!!!!!!!
motor trend

what do you guys think??? this is incredible haha

 

Awesome demo video!! Forget about air suspension or whatever. This thing will rule!!
I hope Bose is actively working with all the major car makers to make the suspension standard on all their high-end cars so that we don't have to.

 

usually BOSCH supplies most of the systems for MB

 

I found this article off of MT's website. Pretty interesting review. Ahh the lovely Gen1 LS body roll. Many manufacturers teased Lexus in the past for that...specifically Inifniti.

Article:
http://motortrend.com/features/consu...osesuspension/

 

I don't mean to be the turd in the punch bowl but...

The first obvious problem I see with this is driver neglience. By that I mean, if you hit a bump(pothole, speed bump) you slow down b/c it jerks the car as well as you, which is uncomfortable. So we slow down, saving the components of the suspension ultimatily. If there is no "feel" when we hit bumps. People will not slow down for them, this obviously defits the purpose of the speed bump. And it will also lead to alot of broken wheels and popped tires, in addition to other components.

Great idea, if you truely understand how it works, but for a soccer mom she will break things, Then blame the manufacture for having a poor quality vehicle when in reality she is a speeding moron who will say, "I didn't know??"

Second, a 200# replacment electronic spring /strut . Bases on shear weight alone I wouldn't want it. Now add in the fact that is electronic and it will fail, what happens then? When a shock fails, eh, it sucks to drive but you can. I see this a major concern for durability/reliability.

 

That's how technologies evolve, my friend. If everybody keeps worrying about new technologies failing, we would still be living in a cave wondering if it's okay to set up a fire.

I don't hear people complaining about failings of active variable suspension, drive-by-wire or even active steering systems, so I'm not gonna be too worried about this new electronic suspension either, not to the point of resisting an adoption, at least.

 

The idea is great and the product looks very promising! I can't wait to see this go mainstream.

-Anthony

 

More tech in cars.....Soon driving cars will be like taking the train on a rail.
Tech takes away driving feel and adds to much weight for safety reasons and other excuses. The new M5 is 4000lbs for goodness sakes.

 

Safety is NOT an excuse. Unless you're talking about an all-out track car, safety is always a concern for regular road cars.
The new M5 may be as heavy as 4000lbs, but it has enough technologies to keep it BOTH agile and safe. That's what technologies are about.
Purists' cars (such as the minimalist Super 7 and Elise) may be fun and all, but for the rest of us we want our cars safe.

The Bose suspension makes cars safer because it allows cars to maintain composure during emergent maneuvers, yet it doesn't impose a harsh ride as today's sports car suspensions do. Best of both worlds, why not?

 

If people would learn how TO drive, we wouldn't need all that tech. Its just lazy. We expect computers to save our butts. Its only a matter of time before people start suing companies because their Super Handling AWD or Active Anti-Roll bars etc etc etc either fail or people still get in accidents. Didn't some morons just sue Nissan b/c they felt the FX should have a back-up camera standard? Instead of them being careful, they want to sue the technology.

I am for safe. I just think we are goint to go overboard. I believe On-Star automatically contacts police in an accident and cars may have black boxes soon.

 

Well, until the day when *everybody* learns how to drive, these technologies will continue to save lives. Even though we still see morons generating stupid news now and then--morons are a given--they do have to try harder nowadays to make an accident happen in a modern car. For one thing, the ESP thing has saved my butt for several times in some of my admittedly stupid turns already!

Not everybody can learn how to drive like a pro, much like not everybody can learn how to communicate with computers with command lines and assembly language. I remember how I (as a geek ) scoffed at MacOS/Windows when they first introduced the concept of a GUI (Graphics User Interface), which hides so many underlying details from the average users. Yet it's easy to use for the average users and less prone to error for them. They now have to try harder to delete important system files or mess up application settings. And that's a good thing for the non-pros.

 

Yes, VSC saved me before. And I do admit, the one time it SAVED me, I was driving to fast in the rain. It was my fault. And that is the problem. Yes, they are safer but will people assume they can drive how they want where they want b/c they feel they have all this tech? We are in a country where people think "Safe" is driving a 6000lbs SUV. They rather crush the person under them instead of becoming a safer, better driver.

I wonder what the added cost of these systems would be?