well, there you go then!

 

I like the idea behind BMW's system. Things will get better in later generatons of it.

Fully electric power steering lets you do things that the 'old' hydraulic system could not easily do. You guys are right that the "fully-active" deal means the vehicle performs steering outputs that are not necessarily correlated to the steering wheel input. Similar to active handling where they can hit one or more brakes independent of the brake pedal input.

And it is one more complicated system to possibly fail and steer you into a tree. That is one reason why 'regular' electric power steering (EPS) is slow to be adopted in the US. They don't have the long safety record of hydraulic systems.

If the system detects an EPS fault it can shut down and is safer than a standard hydraulic in that there is less resistance added to steering a dead EPS system. However, if the EPS is faulting but not detected it can steer you in directions you do not want to go in.

I do engineering on steering angle and torque sensors used in some EPS systems. We put redundancy and other error-detection into it but there is always a possibility of a non-detected fault.

The other delay in adopting EPS widely is 12 V electric systems have to provide an awful lot of current to steer heavier vehicles. Raising system voltage to 42 V will allow EPS in heavier cars (as well as electric brakes which are lighter and faster to engage).

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PLYRS 3

 

From a safety perspective the steering column has been a pain-in-the-chest in crashes since day one. Even the most modern collapsing column with air bag is still a safety hazard. Fully remote systems eliminate the column. Another real benefit.