Electromagnetic Suspension System 309
chuckgrosvenor writes "Every automotive suspension has two goals: passenger comfort and vehicle control. Unfortunately, these goals are in conflict. Two much comfort, and the car rolls and pitches a lot, too much control and you feel every bump. BOSE has found the happy medium by using electromagnetic motors, power amplifiers, & computer control algorithms to even out the road, while still feeling connected to it. Check the quicktime movies to see two different cars stay level while they go through cornering exercises." Reader gatekeep writes "Amar Bose, founder of the Bose Corporation and MIT professor and alumnus, has recently unveiled a new electromagnetic car suspension system. It's said to have taken 24 years to develop. There's only minor technical details available so far, but the author of this piece describes seeing the system allow the test vehicle to jump over obstacles in its path!"
Amazing (Score:5, Insightful)
Like the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. I'd say the video more like a million. And those pictures show quite a bit. Plus the over-exposed headlights picture is a pretty cool way to demonstrate within a picture. But of course the video shows it all. And i think its amazing.
Just my two cents.
Re:Amazing (Score:4, Insightful)
2. Is it just me, or do the "normal" cars look like they've got lousy shocks? Sure, some "dive" is to expected when taking a tight corner, but these things practically hit the ground! In the "Demo Course" video, the cars don't even look like they're going that fast. Maybe 30-40 MPH tops.
That being said, the suspension system is impressive. The balance of the Bose equipped car never wavers. Unless I miss my guess, the thing looks gyroscope stabilized. Combined with powered shocks with near-instant response time, I see little reason why this couldn't work. Kudos to Bose!
Re:Amazing (Score:2)
Re:Amazing (Score:2)
Re:Amazing (Score:5, Insightful)
Not that i'm bashing automotive news, i'm just offering an explanation.
Re:Amazing (Score:4, Interesting)
Still, if it makes down to the cheaper vehicles in five or ten years, it might make everyday driving far more pleasant. Certainly the first major improvement in suspension in several decades.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Amazing (Score:5, Insightful)
Electromagnetic suspension is a step forward for ride quality, but it will come at a price. You'll have to decide if the benefits are worth the increased costs. With the marketing genius of Bose, I predict this system will soon debut on flagship luxury cars.
Term. (Score:5, Informative)
Again, just picking 'cause i'm love with the camera
Like (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Like (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Like (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Like (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Like (Score:2)
Re:Like (Score:2)
Here He Comes! (Score:5, Funny)
Mach 5! Yeah!
Re:Here He Comes! (Score:2)
24 years to develope (Score:2, Informative)
Re:24 years to develop (Score:3, Funny)
*sigh* (Score:3, Funny)
How long before someone decides to ask Slashdot how to add this to an existing car [slashdot.org]...
Re:*sigh* (Score:5, Funny)
Re:*sigh* (Score:2)
Re:Aftermarket (Score:4, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, you no longer exist!
First Suspension (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.archive.org/details-db.php?mediatype=m
Old news (Score:5, Funny)
This is nothing new. The Mach 5 had this in 1966.
This "new" system doesn't even have a kid and a monkey in the trunk, let alone make the "ch-ch-ch-ch" sound.
Re:Old news (Score:3, Funny)
http://trunkmonkeyad.com/
I wonder if... (Score:5, Funny)
It would sure beat doing the brake-gas tap dance to headbang in sequence with the music while driving
Re:I wonder if... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I wonder if... (Score:2)
Re:I wonder if... (Score:2, Funny)
Although with a 5.0 mustang 'twas just a downshift and gas tap dance, no brake needed... the stereo did need to be loud enough to drown out the rattles tho
Gives New Meaning... (Score:5, Interesting)
I like Bose personally. To bad a system like this would be expensive (at least for a few years untill mass production made it more reasonable). Guess that means that unless I strike it rich and can buy a fancy car that would include this (I assume this would be on BMWs or Mercedes), my car will be bouncing on bumpy roads. I'd love to try driving one though.
If I had a car with an electromagnetic suspension (Score:2, Insightful)
007 (Score:2)
Does it come with concealed machine guns, oil slicks, and bulletproof glass?
In suspension terms: Jumping == Bad (Score:2, Informative)
Pitching and yawing can be controlled with proper FBW controls as well as better center-weighted metering.
This is a gimmick. Not surprising, it is Bose... (Ever taken a look at the inside of their "omni-directional" speaker system? They just face the speaker inwards to create an echo chamber. It does nothing but muffle the actual audio.)
Re:In suspension terms: Jumping == Bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In suspension terms: Jumping == Bad (Score:3, Insightful)
It's pretty obvious that the jumping thing was just for sh
Yeah, but... (Score:2)
This sounds cool... (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine putting the crew chief in the car-- and basically replacing him with a very small shell script.
Is the car pushing on entry? Back off the front repulsors a few volts. Dial a volt or two into the back... Adjust wedge on the fly.
And the sick thing is, you don't even have to make the driver do it. A few sensors on various wheels and currently available computing horsepower and it'll know on its own. A car that dynamically adjusts itself to optimal handling as the weather changes, the track temperature changes, the fuel load changes, the tires lose grip.
-JDF
Re:This sounds cool... (Score:5, Insightful)
Bad idea. No shell script can ever hope to compete with a properly experienced crew chief. Look at pros like F1 teams, where they have all of the wizbang gadgetry you could ever want (telemetry is cool!), and they still have crew chiefs. I could see this being useful for limited applications in a very amateur setting, but anything more serious would require a crew chief with knowledge.
Worse idea. The last thing you want to be doing during a race is making adjustments on the fly like that. Ignoring the logistics of how you'd do it (limited mobility within a cockpit, even of a touring car), trying to decide if you need to dial up two volts or three, or if you should be dialing down, or if you even have the right dial is not a good idea. If you have time to do anything more than glance at your tach (and often, you shouldn't even need that, instead trusting engine sound to tell you when to shift), you're not driving fast enough. This will not make you more competitive, and will add quite a few more possible points of failure.
What is optimal handling? Such a system would need a very configurable interface, because no two drivers prefer the same setup. You may like a car that "pushes" (or "understeers", as we non-NASCAR fans like to say), while I may like a car that's "loose" (or "oversteers"). Guess what? That requires a lot of setup beforehand, and will change from track to track so you'll spend much of your available pre-race practice time monkeying with electronics same as you would monkeying with mechanical suspensions. That goes back to the first point, where you will still need a good crew chief.
Finally, this can only compensate for variables that a suspension can affect. If my brakes start to fade late in a race, there's nothing the suspension can do about it. Same for losing aerodynamic pieces of the car. I also wouldn't trust it with unexpected track surface problems (oil or other fluid spills in the race line, dirt or gravel pulled onto the track from off-track excursions, marbles when you have to go off-line for a pass or to avoid a collision, the changing amount of rubber left on braking zones and turns, etc). The transition would have to be completely smooth, and the driver would need a lot of seat time with the system under such conditions to learn what it does in such a scenario. Worst case, you'll lose control of the car because you were expecting it to handle one way, and the suspension changed right out from underneath you.
Re:This sounds cool... (Score:2)
Take a look at any race car there are any number of adjustments the driver makes. Be it brake bias, rollbar stiffness, boost, rev limiter, mixture, shocks. the fastest drivers are making these changes during a corner, the ideal setting for entry is most certainly th
Re:This sounds cool... (Score:2)
1 or 2 races ago, BAR showed up with a front diff in their car to prevent inside front wheel lockup. The FIA told them to ditch it and fined them. Mind you it wasn't a powered diff, and it added weight to the car. The FIA's reasoning was presumably that it was a significant competitive advantage.
So, for all of the advancement F1 symbolizes, they are stuck in their own NASCAR dar
The way of electronic steering? (Score:5, Insightful)
Likewise, if this system is so good, so good in fact that people literally don't feel the road at all, they'll shy away from it. There's just something weird about driving and not being able to feel the road under you - it's like being disconnected, giving you a feeling of not being in control.
(Electronic systems tried to compromise by adding force feedback, but it was to late by then)
was that really why? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:was that really why? (Score:2)
To be perfectly honest, I would have rejected a drive-by-wire system too. It could react better then me and be more reliable then a mechanical system and I still wouldn't go for it - something about that seperation I don
Re:The way of electronic steering? (Score:3, Informative)
Most of the new high-end BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars now use power steering systems powered by an electric motor due to the fact they weigh much less than traditional power steering systems.
Re:The way of electronic steering? (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you have any links? I've never heard of this (I assume you're talking about fully-separated drive-by-wire steering, with no mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the front wheels).
Your reasoning is suspect, however. If it worked as you say, it should have been an instant hit in large American luxury cars. Ever driven a Lincoln Town Car (specifically, an early 90's model; it may have changed since then)? I drove one once, and the power steering was so overboosted that there was almost no feedback at all. It felt like driving those older arcade driving games that had no feedback.
Likewise, if this system is so good, so good in fact that people literally don't feel the road at all, they'll shy away from it. There's just something weird about driving and not being able to feel the road under you - it's like being disconnected, giving you a feeling of not being in control.
A system with no feedback isn't "good". It's absolutely dangerous. Since you can't guarantee that the steered wheels will always steer the car in the intended direction, and that there will never be a loss of traction, feedback is necessary to compensate. This is true of both human-controlled and computer-controlled systems, and is a basic fundamental of control system theory.
The people who "shied away" from this shied away from it the same way people would intuitively, but smartly, shy away from using a power saw with a blindfold on.
Not me... (Score:5, Insightful)
I find that just about all products, and automabiles especially, are getting excessively complicated, needlessly...
My current car for instance... The shoulder belt is electronically moved into place when the door is closed, and forward when the door is opened. Since I have to fasten my lap belt anyhow, this doesn't make life one bit easier for me, yet, the sensor goes out, the motor goes out, and either I'm paying shitloads of money to get replacement parts to fix the damn thing, or I'm welding it in-place, and then manually unhooking two seatbelts... Piece of junk. Meanwhile, basic, old-fashioned 3-point seatbelts work better.
These days, cars are mechanically more sound than they were previously, but electronicly less sound. Cars used to overheat because of serious problems... Now they overheat because the $5 sensor (that costs $200 to have replaced) went out, and the electric fan didn't kick on when things were getting too hot... Meanwhile, a mechnical fan, connected to the engine shaft, would have worked just as well, never failed, and would have been cheaper.
Maybe I am just (slightly) paranoid, but it seems as if manufacturers are making things needlessly complex intentionally so that they can sell more cars, or get more money on repairs. Something like airbags I can understand, but 99+% of this high-tech junk is no better than the low-tech solution, and is more prone to failure, and need replairs.
Well, even if it's not intentional, I want no part of it, because facts are facts, and the more high-tech, the more problems there will be.
Getting this back to the topic, I'm sure this new technology is an impressive improvement, but dammed if I want it. Truck drivers might stand to benefit from it, considering their unique situation, but with a car or a truck, the roughness of the ride is a very important indicator of how much damage you are doing to your vehicle.
If their intention is really to allow you to haul heavy-loads, while cushioning small bumps, why aren't they doing it the low-tech way? There are plenty of spring designs that could be used that would make the ride very smooth when there is no load, yet maintain the strength when loaded. You wouldn't get the benefit from it when loaded, however, when a truck is heavily loaded, you normally don't feel the small bumps anyhow... It's only when they are emtpy that the firm springs result in a rough-ride.
Re:Not me... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Not me... (Score:2)
Having your car overheat in the middle of the desert, 100+ miles from nowhere, can be very serious.
Re:Not me... (Score:2)
Actually, GMAC, the finance division of General Motors, was the most profitable division of the company. Therefore, all they need to do is make a car that gets people to want to finance it, since that's where they'll make their money.
It ends with the same result; cars that are built to be less reliable, using cheaper parts, and just getting people to accept them
Re:Not me... (Score:4, Informative)
What kind of car are you driving? I haven't seen a system like that in a car for nearly a decade. They were in style for a few years in the late 80s and early 90s, but quickly died a quick death. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that the automatic belt gave drivers a false sense of safety, thus causing them not to latch their lap belts. The lap belt is the most important piece of a three-point belt restraint system, and with only a shoulder belt you run a very high risk of slipping down your seat in a collision, catching the shoulder belt with your chin, and literally losing your head.
Assuming, then, that you're driving a 10+ year old car, it's no wonder you have these types of problems. Such computer-controlled systems were still relatively new, and they've come quite a long way.
Re:Not me... (Score:4, Insightful)
The fan's drive belt breaks...
Things were not magically indestructible in the past, buster.
Re:Not me... (Score:2)
Re:Not me... (Score:2)
1. The seat belt problem is a political issue, not a technical one. Up here in Canada, we all wear seatbelts and motorized harnesses are not mandated so we don't have them.
2. Yes, cars are more complex but I think overall the complexity saves us money or adds real value. Because by the time your car gets overheated for a real reason, the damage has become real bad and more expensive.
3. I don't know if active suspension will ever become inexpens
Re:Not me... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Not me... (Score:4, Insightful)
I can think of at least four reasons to use an electric fan. First, it increases fuel efficiency. By turning off the fan when not needed more of the power from the engine is used to move the car down the road. Second, having fan speed proportional to engine speed really is not the correct relationship. If I am idling in heavy traffic on a hot day, I probably want the fan running faster than if I'm flying down the freeway at 80MPH on a cool day. Third, I have to imagine that it simplifies vehicle assembly since you don't have these large, thin, fairly delicate sheets of metal hanging off the front of the engine. Instead, the fan can be attached to and installed with the radiator. Finally, it allows for configurations where there the axis of rotation for the fan and the engine fall in different planes.
None of these reasions have anything to do with adding complexity to get more money on repairs.
Re:Not me... (Score:2, Insightful)
Hmm... I have a few problems with that assertion.
First of all, the gas used by spinning a small fan is nominal at best, and most likely that and much more gas is being wasted by other components that could be eliminated or just optimized.
Second, it wastes much more gas if you must first turn it into electricity, and then use it to do work. The losses right there quite probably make up the difference in gas... At least driving here in the desert where it's hot most of the t
Re:Not me... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not me... (Score:2)
I agree, the automatic shoulder restraints suck ass.
-molo
Re:Not me... (Score:5, Insightful)
The electric radiator fan instead of the mechanical (to use your example) - electric fans only exist in front wheel drive vehicles. The reason for that is FWD vehicles have tranversally mouted engines so putting a mechanicly driven fan is actually more complicated and costly and less reliable than an electric fan. Cars didn't used to have that because FWD only came onto the scene in the late 80's.
Electronic fuel injectors instead of carburators - now cars use less fuel and produce less harmful emissions than before. The Dodge Ram that used to get 6 mpg now gets over 15.
Electronic ignition saves fuel and improves the perfomance of the vehicle due to its ability to adapt to the changing conditions (temperature, speed, load, etc) on the engine and gets rid of the mechanical distributor (which was a maintenance issue).
Truth is, solid-state electronics are always less prone to failure than their mechanical counterparts and usually have the ability to adapt instantly to changing conditions.
The electronic suspension is a natural progression, something I've been waiting to see. I'm just surprised that it was Bose that introduced it first.
The spring designs that you refer to - they are the leaf spring live-axle suspension - the oldest design known. My truck has that on the rear axle. Some have it one the front as well. You are correct that they have a smooth ride and that they handle a wide variety of load conditions. In fact, they can probably handle a wider range than this electronic suspension.
The point of it though was that you can get great cornering ability without losing the smoothness of the ride. My truck corners quite poorly and the suspension is a major factor in that (the other factor being the higher centre of gravity).
It seems that Bose demontrated this on a luxury car instead of on a truck, which prolly means that that was the target market of this system. Cars don't handle nearly the range of loads that trucks do (which is why cars can have independant suspesions on all four wheels) so it seems that your point of hauling loads is irrelevant in this discussion.
As for reliability - the front suspension of my truck is independant, like most trucks. I've had all four ball joints replaced already. I've never had to replace any electronics in my car - anywhere. (I know - anectodal evidence...)
To summerize, the leaf spring isn't going away, this system is designed to achieve different goals. And reliability isn't a concern when you compare it to the alternative.
- Thomas;
Re:Not me... (Score:2)
I was trying to specify that it is done by electric motors, so neither term cuts it.
Because it is not detrimental to the engine, and the energy spent is nominal.
No, a waste of energy is taking mechanical force, wasting energy by converting it to electricity, quite probably storing it bef
Worth it or not?.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Typical Bose (Score:5, Interesting)
Little or no technical details, controlled environments that make their technology appear better than it is, and exaggeration. If you read the last article linked, it's not even a fair comparison. For instance, there's this quote:
There's no reason to assume that the Bose suspension does not in any way affect the existing suspension, so simply switching it off is not a fair comparison.
The idea of active suspension is not new, and Bose is not the only one doing it. GM has had "Magnetic Ride Control" [corvetteactioncenter.com] for a few years now, and other manufacturers [supercars.net] have similar active technologies. While the Bose articles are light on details, it seems that the Bose technology is not far different from other electronically controlled systems (something about electric motors at all four wheels, yet it apparently still uses standard pneumatic suspension components as well).
Bose's flair for hyperbole and marketing is their only real asset. My ass it took 24 years to develop this technology. Perhaps it's been 24 years since there has been any significant innovation in suspension technology (I'm not buying it, though ...), but there's no way Bose has been working on this one piece of technology for 24 years.
Bose can sell a $20 clock radio for $300, and a $1000 home theater system for $3500, and you can bet they'll sell this technology for quite a bit more than average as well, where similar systems are currently optioned around $1000-$3000 depending on the make (ie, Porsche's system is more expensive than Chevy's, and I would expect Bose to be even more expensive than Porsche)
Besides, do you really trust a second-rate "hi-fi" (haha!) company to build the suspension for your car? I certainly wouldn't! Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Chevy, et al have been doing it for far longer, and have a much deeper wealth of automotive knowledge. I'll trust the experts on this one, rather than Bose.
Re:Typical Bose (Score:2)
One company with a system that sounds similar to Bose, for mobile homes, (Aimright or Coast) went bankrupt a couple of years ago in California.
This is hardly revolutionary... (Score:4, Informative)
Unfortunately.. (Score:5, Informative)
Benz there. Done that. (Score:5, Informative)
First thought (Score:2, Insightful)
Good-bye bumpstops (Score:2, Interesting)
The technology I'm waiting to see... (Score:3, Interesting)
In my book, it just figures that a loudspeaker company would be the first to start tinkering with this kind of tech. It's just the sort of thing that you can imagine occuring to some sound engineer after too many hours screwing around with large magnets.
Power Hungery Vehiculars (Score:2)
To be used in combustion engines exclusively since it'd likely take way to much power for use in a electric/hybrid vehical. But I guess it's the thought that counts, right?
Direct link to cornering video (Score:2)
Lotus active suspension (Score:2, Informative)
That's an impressive actuator (Score:2)
If they put those actuators into production, they'll have applications in robotics.
Tilting Cars (Score:2)
Once we have active suspensions, I think it would be cool to actually tilt the car into the turn, much like a boat does. I mean, I wouldn't do it at the extreme angles of a boat but it would help push you into the seat instead of into the side bolsters and you wouldn't be fighting against the sideways force so much this.
I think this would improve the d
Comparing Apples to Oranges (Score:5, Insightful)
IANCE (Chassis Engineer), but I have an interest in suspension systems as applied to motor racing. The suspension in the vehicle depicted as having a "conventional" system a very poor choice for comparision since it appears to be a medicore suspension system at best. A conventional suspension system with stiffer springs, anti-roll bars, and better dampers would perform drastically better under those types of conditions.
The vehicle pictured appears to be a Lexus LS400, which of course is a luxury barge that sacrifices handling for comfort. I realise Bose is claiming you can have your cake and eat it too - but I'd like to see a more valid comparision before drawing any conclusions - for example, a comparision with a BMW 5-series
This system looks like it would be quite heavy - and I bet you need extra batteries to provide adequate current too. Another question is how much heat the system generates, and how well it performs when hot (any electrical engineers care to comment on that?)
Re:Comparing Apples to Oranges (Score:2)
I do wonder about the extra power requirements for them though. I would imagine that a stock battery would not be sufficient to drive four of those.
Re:Comparing Apples to Oranges (Score:2)
Re:Comparing Apples to Oranges (Score:2)
The fact that you don't see this on 6-figure rally cars or trophy trucks tells me that there are either:
1) traditional spring/damper systems that work just as well
2) serious reliability problems with this system.
My guess is the former. WRC cars in particular would benefit substantially from this, they clearly have the budget to develop it, and at least one team would have taking the reliability risk by now if it outperformed traditional suspensions by a la
fail-safe? (Score:2)
Re:fail-safe? (Score:3, Insightful)
I would imagine that with the stringent standards put forth for safety guidelines in automobile manufacturing this day in age, there would have to be come kind of fail-safe before the system went into production for the public. Perhaps this prototype is without, but proving the principal at hand seems to have been the focus of the research. Step 2 is to create a practical implementation. (Step 3 will definitley be "Profit!!!")
I imagine that the most obvious saftey solution is to build such a control system
Corvette has had something similar for awhile (Score:2, Insightful)
Magnetic Selective Ride Control Magnetic Selective Ride Control is a real-time, cockpit-adjustable ride control system that adjusts shock absorber damping by means of electromagnetically charged particles contained within the shock fluid. When exposed to a magnetic charge, the fluid properties change, for
Speed bumps? (Score:2)
I've always wanted this: a suspension that would see a speed bump and pull the wheel in automatically.
P.S. To my speed-bump-happy city: screw you, and your hundreds of speed bumps, too.
Bombardier's Jet Train has similar (Score:2)
http://www.bombardier.com/index.jsp?id=1_0&lang=e n &file=/en/1_0/1_10/1_10.jsp [bombardier.com]
"Trains entering curves at high speeds are subject to centrifugal forces that can cause passenger discomfort. Typically, there are two ways to reduce centrifugal forces. The first is to improve the track curve radii or super elevation; this is a physical change to the tracks themselves. The second is the use of train tilting.
JetTrain high-speed rail coaches are equipped with a patented advance tilting system that
Question about the videos (Score:5, Interesting)
Only explanation I can think is that the courses were driven alot faster than they appear, and then the video slowed down so you can see the effects more clearly.
Anyone else perhaps more learned in this area care to comment?
Re:Question about the videos (Score:3, Informative)
Either
- they show both the movies for the original system and their system in slow motion, which would make their system even more impressing
- they should their movie in real time, and the movie with the original system in slow motion, which would be cheating
- they modified the original suspension, made it much softer, which would be cheating also.
I've been told that suspensions in general are stiffer here in Europe than in America, even that suspensions on cars impor
Yeah (Score:2)
Your car will drive like a concert hall.
Geez, that just makes no sense whatsoever.
What happens when you lose power? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What happens when you lose power? (Score:3, Informative)
Lotus pioneered the fully active suspension (Score:2)
Needless complexity in automobiles... (Score:5, Interesting)
My brother-in-law is a young, but very well respected manufacturing engineer that graduated from one of the top 5 engineering schools in the US. He related to me that when he had to take the automotive engineering block, his design guidlines were to make it: modular, unrepairable, limited lifetime, and requiring an expensive machine tool infrastructure to build.
This was to prevent shade-tree and small shop mechanics from repairing/replacing/rebuilding parts, and force them to purchase replacement parts. I ran into this in the electronics industry also - you sell the device once, but only you can repair it for the next 20 years.
This sounds like one more unnecessary gimmick, like heated rearview mirrors, temp controlled seats, self-actuating shoulder belts, etc...
When it works right, it will be very nice. When it doesn't, it will be very expensive. And let's not forget that Bose will have this entire system patented, and the control modules probably potted and rigged to wipe themselves if tampered with ("I'm sorry, your module is damaged, that will take 2 weeks and $700 to get a new one").
Thank god that there isn't a software equivalent to electronics potting compound!
Screw the passengers... (Score:3, Insightful)
Just my $0.00 worth.
Inefficient. (Score:4, Interesting)
Considering that an automotive AC compressor consumes between 3 and 5 horsepower [google.com]. Doing the math, that equates to something around an extra 1 to 1.6 horsepower being required to operate this system.
Which doesn't sound like much, until you do the rest of the math:
1.6 horsepower = 82.84 amps at 14.4 volts. 82.84 amps is a fuckload of current to move around in a car for anything, let alone just to keep the car on the road.
Wake me up when the thing doesn't require fatter cabling than the starter motor, and ceases to present a real safety hazard in the event of (increasingly likely) alternator failure.
Re:Inefficient. (Score:4, Informative)
Motors like to suck current. Its just one of those things. Auto world has been dealing with it for years now, and we've pretty much figured out how to handle high current loads (hell, we switch those 90 amp currents on and off in a box the size of a small hardcover book.)
"Two Much Comfort"? (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't know what's more disturbing: The obvious spelling error in the article summary or that fact that, six hours later, not a single nerd has thought it important enough to mention...
Is it possible that I am the only one who cringed when reading "two much"????
An end to "sleeping policemen" (Score:3, Informative)
this is all interesting, (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Coil Over (Score:4, Funny)
How far will you be able to drive when your Bose Suspension computer gets confused? Give me analog until they get right.
Re:Coil Over (Score:2)
As a matter of fact, I think you can pick up a similar device for programming MB electronic systems.