I don't think there are serious safety issues. Every modern aircraft is steer by wire. It's purely a cost issue. The amount of redundancy required for a steering system makes it cost prohibitive.

 

horrible? imagine u r flying in an Airbus. they used fly-by-wire long time ago......

i guess you will feel more "connected" when you turn your steering wheel and knowing that it REALLY connects to the steering rather than sending a few electric signals to the system.......

 

Turning the steering wheel and knowing that it makes it to the tires is not the direction I'm worried about. With a conventional car, the wheel feels very different in my hands at 8/10, 9/10 and 10/10 of the limits of tire adhesion. That feedback lets me know whether to push harder or dial it back. Okay, perhaps a car with that that steer-by-wire will use yaw sensors and other wizardry to know better than I do what the tires are doing, and intercede in a way that I cannot. Even if true, what fun is that?

 

It's not impossible to re-create the sensation of going past slip angle with feedback systems. There are some surprisingly good feeling arcade games these days. Really though, the technology solves a problem that doesn't exist.

There are so many good things about drive-by-wire throttles from an engineering perspective it isn't funny. Not the least of which is you can use a much larger TB bore and not have issues with the air stalling because the ECM determines the blade's angle, not the driver's foot. If you've ever had smoothbore carburetors on a bike, you'd know what I mean. So, you can put a bigger TB in the system for more power without the usual drawbacks AND you can build in engine fail-safes to ensure the owner can't detonate the engine to death (by closing the throttle even though the driver's foot is mashed to the floor) when serious detonation occurs.

 

I can't for the life of me figure out what benefit there would be to drive by wire steering, other than to tell all your friends that you have it. Using it on an airplane isn't a reason to adapt it for use in cars. Stop watching Saab commercials.

 

There's only one. Implementing a DWIMNWIS control system (do what I mean, not what I say). We already have some intervention systems showing up in the market place, and it's only a matter of time until we have complete hardware abstraction between the driver and the car. ABS was step one, traction controls were step two. Now we have stability controls that take control from the driver when they sense impending doom. It certainly would be easy enough to add steering to the mix as long as the steering is environmentally aware. I know for a fact Toyota have developed systems using GPS to locate a vehicle on a road and automatically brake if the entry speed for a corner exceeds the engineer's expectations. If they just add steering, we'll be in the lap of luxury, right? No driver involvement at all, just program a destination and let the machine do all the work...trust me, my wife would LOVE a car that drove her everywhere, and I'm sure there are quite a few people out there who would consider it the ultimate in luxury.

 

These cars already exsist...we call em LIMOS

 

talking about driving fun, yes. i do agree.......

i guess the whole idea behind all that system(s) is that they wanna make the car much "safer" for drivers? but at the same time when all the system(s) connect together, you will feel "disconnected" with the car cos' you dont have any kind of "control" over it......(unless you turn off ALL those systems?)

another thing i guess is the more system(s) they put in your car, the more chances of servicing them, maybe that how they want you to take the cars back to the dealers for service and start charging big time $$$$$?

 

Our IS's have.
Drive by wire
Brake is conventional
and Steering is conventional.

The only car that I know of that has Steer by Wire or a hybrid version of it is BMW. They call it active steering. It's currently on all their cars.

http://www.bmw.ru/english/news/news/...D_35$year_2002

 

talking about throttle by wire.....have u guys noticed any lag time from your foot stepping on the gas pedal until the car really responds and accelerate?

about ~1/2 a second?

i do notice it when i downshift.......

 

Steer by wire does NOT have any mechanical linkage to the steering wheel, the BMW version shown in the link above still incorporates a mechanical linkage between the steering wheel and the rack and pinion. I have to say though that the BMW setup shown is pretty awesome although it seems a bit overkill to me.

 

That's why i said it's a hybrid version. But it's very very close!
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...5/ai_111064217

I'm sure they do this to still give the driver, the feedback that is so rewarding driving a BMW.

 

Drive by wire throttle. Yes.

Brake is conventional. No - ABS, EBD, and brake assist will take control from the driver if the stability sensors deem it necessary.

Steering is conventional. Not exactly. There are situations where VDIM will take control of the steering. See below:

 

Sorry dude, by conventional I meant typical. (similar to what everybody else has). I meant that it wasn't by-wire.