The new 5 series has whats called "Active Steering", which uses an electric motor to alter the steering ratio depending on the vehicle's speed.

They claim this system to be a unique and revolutionary system, and encourage customers to "drive the future today..."

Hello BMW, welcome to 4 yrs ago. Ever heard of the Type V?

 

I think it's different. But I'm not 100% sure. They had a demo at the chi auto show and the faster the car went, the actual STEERING RATIO decreased, not just the tension. I could be wrong though.

 

SUVH8r is correct, the concept is different. Car and Driver did not have good things to say about the system.

It seems ironic that a company which sells many cars based on them being "drivers cars" would try to further isolate the driver from the road...

 

All I know is when I saw a cut away view of the internal workings of that system, I was shocked to see that it consisted of what looked to be about 5 thousand parts. So that means the car will probably cost an additional 5 thousand bucks!

 

I don't think you understand what the S2000 Type V is all about. The VGS system it has does vary the steering ratio.

So yes, BMW seems to be deploying a unique, revolutionary technology that Honda had in a production car over four years ago.

Having driven a Type V car (albeit on a wet autocross course) I must say I enjoyed it.

 

oh...so the VGS system on the type V just put tension on the wheel at higher speeds? I though that the ratio was actually changed (thru the electric power steering)

if its just a tension thing, my bad....

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by steve c

It seems ironic that a company which sells many cars based on them being "drivers cars" would try to further isolate the driver from the road...

 

I suspect we are getting hung up in the definition as well as the actual means of implementation. The concept of variable steering ratios has been around for years -- you can buy a variable rate system for your 60's Camaro or Jeep if you so desire ...

The main difference here is that the new type of systems being developed are generally dubbed "active" systems in that they are able to control the front wheels independent of driver input, i.e. countersteering in cooperation with the rest of the traction control system, or in the case of the BMW putting in some opposite steering to counteract crosswinds on the highway.

Delphi, Toyota, BMW, and I'm sure a few others all have systems either released or in review that accomplish this. To my knowledge the Honda VGS system does not provide this "active" capacity.

 

actually, i've further found out (not sure if it's accurate) that VGS is not speed dependent, but rather, input dependent.....

 

Not true.

The official Honda press release: http://world.honda.com/news/2000/4000707.html
So if you're tooling around in a parking lot at 5mph, you just need to turn the steering wheel a little bit in order to make a sharp corner. But if you're on the track at 120mph, that's bad news - so the steering ratio is slowed down a lot.

Now, I have no idea if this is what BMW is doing. But it sounds like it. Which would make their claim that it's unique and revolutionary quite foolish.