New Car Can Lean Into Curves, Literally 243
cartechboy (2660665) writes "You know how motorcycle riders lean into the corners, sometimes even touching their knee to the ground? Mercedes-Benz has developed new technology that replicates that sensation by leaning the car into bends. It's called Dynamic Curve and it's part of the Active Body control suspension system on the new 2015 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe. In turns, special plunger cylinders raise the suspension struts and lower the opposite side, depending on the direction of the bend. This has the result of tilting the car body slightly towards the inside of the corner, countering centrifugal cornering forces. Mercedes says it's not design for increasing cornering speeds, but increasing pleasure for the driver and passengers."
Re:Gimmick (Score:5, Insightful)
Think. Cars naturally lean THE WRONG WAY on curves. They tilt over toward the outside. This magnifies the centrifugal force you feel by adding a gravity component to it.
We are talking about suspensions that lean THE RIGHT WAY on curves. They tilt toward the inside, like a banking airplane. This reduces the centrifugal force you feel by subtracting a gravity component from it.centrifugal
But it gives the driver the wrong impression (Score:5, Insightful)
Drivers depend on feedback from the car to help them make necessary adjustments.
If a curve isn't banked enough, the car shouldn't fool the driver into thinking that it is banked enough.
That feeling one gets when the car leans towards the outside of the curve is telling the driver to slow down!
Re:Poorly Designed Roadways Addressed By This (Score:2, Insightful)
And misplaced confidence!
Re:Poorly Designed Roadways Addressed By This (Score:5, Insightful)
Less sensation of control loss is not a good thing. If the road was built badly (ie. opposite banking) then the driver should be aware of that, instead of thinking that he has control while in fact he doesn't.
This technology is a gimmick not unlike the pneumatics famous from the 80s (?) cars.
Re:Gimmick (Score:5, Insightful)
The car going around the curve can be seen to be in a rotating reference frame from the point of view of an observer in the car with the center of rotation at the point inside the curve which the car is maintaining a constant distance from. And the car itself is rotating in inertial space by the fact that the direction it is pointing is changing going through the curve (unless it is understeering very badly).
Re:Yeah. Right. (Score:5, Insightful)
ABS generally pumps the brakes at 25hz or higher, about 25 times faster than a human, regardless of how bad ass you THINK you are.
The wheels do, in fact skid a little bit. Wheel skid is how the system knows to pump the brakes. ABS brakes will still live skid marks. The wheels suddenly start having large differences in rotational speeds under heavy breaking and between that and accelerometer data the computer knows you've got one or more tires losing traction.
You didn't slide through an intersection because of ABS, you slide through it because you were going to fast for conditions.
Science ... Using professional race car drivers says you are flat out wrong. You can not brake better and maintain control better than a functional modern ABS system. The fact that you are so arrogant and stupid to think you can is reason enough to revoke your license.
They still offer cars without ABS because it's cheaper, and some people want cheaper
Your an idiot. Stay off the road, please, before you kill someone.
ABS is not "more dangerous" (Score:5, Insightful)
ABS is dangerous to people who learned to drive without it.
Only if they are not competent drivers to begin with. ABS was not on the vast majority of cars when I learned to drive and we seem to have somehow survived the transition. ABS demonstrably makes drivers safer and there is plenty of data to prove it.
The normal technique of locking and releasing the brakes by pumping the pedal doesn't work, because the brakes never lock in the first place, so all you end up doing is repeatedly letting go of the brake for no reason.
Manual pump braking works exactly the same way with or without ABS. ABS does exactly the same thing as manual pump braking but ABS does the braking and releasing but much faster than any human could possible do it and therefore it works better.
The only time I have ever slid though a stop sign in the snow was in an ABS vehicle.
Oh, well, one anecdote should convince us all... [/sarcasm] You can still slide in an ABS equipped vehicle if the road is sufficiently slippery. If the surface is truly close to frictionless it doesn't matter what kind of brake system you use. You are along for the ride. For example my driveway is fairly steep and after an ice storm you are going to slide down a portion of it. It does not matter what you do with the brakes because there is basically no friction between you and the road. You didn't slide through the intersection because of ABS. You slid because you were going too fast.