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 Smart Brakes: A Dumb Idea?
by Steve Wingate

Author's note: This article contains commentary on an article in the December 4, 2000 issue of Autoweek entitled "Remote-control stopping" by Greg Kable. Visit Autoweek online at www.autoweek.com

Well, it looks as though those super safety conscious folks at Mercedes- Benz are trying to make the world safer again.  "Brake-by-wire", called "Sensotronic Brake Control" by the German automaker, is set to appear on the SL roadster next year.  Costing just $150 more per car than existing brake systems, Mercedes plans to equip all of it's cars with SBC within the next six years.

Instead of conventional mechanical parts, SBC will incorporate a series of electronic sensors that read the speed and force that is being applied to the brake pedal and send directions back to an electronic master cylinder that pressurizes and applies the brakes.  A hydraulic simulator is used to actuate the brake pedal, giving it a normal feel under hard braking, which means there is no pedal vibration like there is with conventional ABS systems. The systems gathers a multitude of information on wheel speed, yaw, gear ratio, etc, and then distributes the braking force to the appropriate wheels.  It actually sounds like a sensible alternative to ABS systems.

Although I realize that Mercedes is concerned with safety, some of the other features of SBC make me consider this whole thing another one of those "Automotive Innovations for The Thinking Impaired".  There's one feature that applies "minute braking impulses" in wet weather conditions to help dry the brake rotors.  I've always found that the solution to wet weather conditions was to drive more carefully and slow down.  75% of the drivers on the road today don't have enough sense to slow down or turn on their headlights in the rain, so let's make it easier for them to drive foolishly by giving them tires with water channels and dry brakes.  There's also a traffic jam assist feature which applies the brake to a standstill when the driver releases the accelerator, without the driver pressing the brake pedal.  God forbid, let's not require Mercedes drivers to actually apply the brake themselves.  Horrors!  Then you have drive-away assist, a feature that holds the car on hills without the use of a parking brake.  Pressing the accelerator releases the brake.  Does anyone remember what the single hardest thing about learning to drive a straight shift was?  Taking off on a hill, of course.  I know that I will sleep easier knowing that, in the future, no over-priveledged beginning driver will have to suffer and struggle as I, and many others before and after, had to do with those pesky takeoffs.

My point is that cars are getting easier to drive, perhaps too easy.  As they get easier, the coming of age drivers have to master fewer and fewer skills before getting their licensees.  My father tells stories of learning to drive on an old Model A.... how he had no power steering or brakes, and how it took several hundred pounds of pressure to push the clutch in, and how the long spindly shifter only went in to the correct gear if you "held your mouth just right."   My sister and I both learned to drive in a 1972 Volvo 144 with no power brakes or steering, and a manual choke.  I remember my dad telling me that I was learning to drive in luxury compared to how he did it.  Being sixteen at the time, I considered this observation, like anything else he said, to be quite stupid.  Now that I have the proper perspective, meaning no longer being an insolent, sullen, disrespectful and pretty much dimwitted teenager like I was, I realize just how right he was.   

Cars have been evolving to better suit our needs since their very inception... after all, that's what they're designed for-- to suit our needs.  Electric starters, turn signals, automatic transmissions, fuel injection,  onboard computers,ABS, GPS, SBC, and so on, it's been happening all along. And, as cars evolve, we, as drivers, must follow suit.  But we must not lose touch with our "primal" driving instincts by relying on gadgets to correct our mistakes or react for us.  That's where technology can really hurt us.  The automobile can be the most dangerous weapon in existence if we lose respect for it's power.  Meaning, minus all the gadgets, a car is basically a 2000 lb. projectile with human lives inside.

Drive carefully.

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2001 Car Guy of Benchfield
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