"In tests, a prototype with the wedge brakes regularly required less than half the distance to come to a complete stop than the prototype with the standard brakes, a company official said." :eek2:
What happens when someone cuts your brake line? Umm, you could be dead. I'm sure they'll be rigorous safety tests and research before these end up on a production vehicle.
If the power connector failed, most likely the brakes would fail safe. Meaning, you wouldn't be moving as the brakes would lock.
sounds promising, but how about brake feel and modulation? Probably down to the manuf. to program electronically...
ok, so they brake better than normal caliper brakes... but how will this improve stopping distances? stopping distances are limited by two things: the brakes, and the tires... you can't brake more effectively than the tires grip on the road or you just lock up the tires... am I missing something? I'm going to re-read the article
I was kind of thinking the same thing. I mean, the tires have there limit. I can't imagine that they can stop in half the distance.
i didn't see anything about what kind of "standard" brakes they were testing against. nor did it go into pads/rotors/rubber. and were they talking about distance at limit, beyond limit or threashold (on the standard ABS brakes)? i'm not saying it isn't better (although having ABS that i can't turn off doesn't jazz me up much), but as was stated above, tread has finite traction limit. brakes don't change that.
It could be that each wheel modulates the braking force quickly and precisely (have you ever had ABS kick in? It's not particularly smooth...), so you'd have each wheel optimized as far as the grip can carry it. It should be able to finetune braking power much more efficiently than hydraulic ABS.
I agree it sounds pretty excessive, but I have little to no knowledge on just how efficient hydraulic ABS / human modulation is... when they take a car that normally stops in 120 feet, slap these brakes on it, and stop it in 60, then I'll believe.
Most cars brakes cannot engage the ABS at highway speeds, not enough power. Thats where these increased stopping distances come from, staying near threshold braking the whole time. Common ABS is crude, thats why racers can stop faster by not engaging ABS (and why it pulses). This ABS seems to have much finer control and more power. ped: recording car movement is not new. As I understand, all modern OBD2 cars already record the preceeding ~10s before an airbag deployment, including speed and braking. Police have used the OBD "black box" to investigate accidents already.