Ford's Bringing Adaptive Steering To the Masses

cartechboy writes: "Most automakers have made the jump from hydraulic power steering to electronic power steering to help conserve fuel. By using an electric motor instead of a hydraulic system, less energy is drawn from the engine. Many luxury automakers have also introduced adaptive steering with the electronic power steering systems, but now Ford is looking to bring this feature to the masses. Adaptive steering builds on the existing speed-sensitive function of the electronic power steering system by altering the steering ratio and effort based on driver inputs and settings. The system uses a precision-controlled actuator placed inside the steering wheel. It's an electric motor and gearing system that can essentially add or subtract from the driver's steering inputs. This will make the vehicle easier to maneuver at low speeds, and make a vehicle feel more stable at high speeds. The system (video) will be offered on certain Ford vehicles within the next 12 months."

Comments

Ghost in the machine

[DigiShaman]

Does that mean that if one of those actuators or logic board malfunctions, that it could steer a car into traffic? All it takes is for a few milliseconds and some force to jerk the wheel out of someone's hands. Or so I would imagine.

Re:Ghost in the machine

[HideyoshiJP]

That would also be an issue with the electric steering alone. While it's hydraulic, my RX-7 also has speed sensitive power steering and it works rather well. Variable ratio steering was first available on the Honda S2000, and I don't think anyone's complaining. This system simply uses EPAS to accomplish much the same thing.

Re:Ghost in the machine

[perpenso]

I'm pretty sure designers of fly-by-wire airplanes have already solved the problem. ;-)

Yes, they had ejection seats for the first couple of decades of fly-by-wire. ;-)

Re:Ghost in the machine

[ottawanker]

Electric power steering works with sensors on the steering wheel that detect when you turn it, and how much. The car then does some calculations taking into account the force and speed with which you turn the wheel, and the speed at which the vehicle is traveling. It then activates a motor, which actually turns the wheels.

I believe there is an electromagnetic clutch that disconnects the steering wheel from the actual rack and pinion, unless a fault is detected.

Re:Ghost in the machine

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

They also had people shooting at them...

Sort of like driving in west Oakland.

Re:Ghost in the machine

[Grishnakh]

Electric power steering works with sensors on the steering wheel that detect when you turn it, and how much. The car then does some calculations taking into account the force and speed with which you turn the wheel, and the speed at which the vehicle is traveling. It then activates a motor, which actually turns the wheels.

No, it doesn't.

EPS is little different from hydraulic power steering. The motor merely assists the driver in steering the car. There's still a direct mechanical connection between the wheel and the steering arms. The sensors on the steering wheel are detecting how much torque you're applying to the wheel, and use that and the road speed to determine how much assist to give via the motor.

There's no clutch in normal EPS cars. These new variable-ratio ones, however, might just work that way.

Re:Ghost in the machine

[hackertourist]

Depends on the implementation. BMW, for instance, uses a planetary gear set connected to the steering wheel, the rack and an electric motor. If the motor or the adaptive steering logic fails, the motor is locked and you get an ordinary constant-ratio steering system.
Checking whether the steering output matches the input would take care of your scenario.

Re:Radical new way to steer the car.

[Grishnakh]

This is a stupid idea. For one thing, a big, red, octagonal stop sign is not a good way to steer a car.

But in case you're talking about joysticks, those are terrible ways to control cars, because they don't have the range of motion that a steering wheel does. If they made any sense at all, you'd see Formula 1 cars with them. You don't. F1 cars all use steering wheels, despite being loaded with an incredible amount of technology.

Ghost in the machine

[Anonymous Coward]

No thanks, I'll keep my hand on the burger and cell phone and coffee and makeup and... where I'm in full control

Old tech is new news?

[elistan]

This isn't exactly new. While I don't know how exactly the system works, Honda offered variable gear steering on the S2000 Type V 14 years ago. A while I don't know if any "for the masses" cars has variable gear steering, there are a number of manufacturers who currently offer it. (BMW, for example.)

Bleh

[m.dillon]

Sounds idiotic to me. Non-linear steering is great, but any sort of dynamic/adaptive steering that changes according to conditions is stupid beyond belief and will cause an endless stream of accidents because the driver can no longer predict how the car will react to similar steering motions.

-Matt

I have a ford

[Charliemopps]

I have a ford with adaptive steering... You can barely tell its there. The basic goal is to give you lots of help while the car is stationary or moving slow... but make it harder to jerk the wheel when doing 80. Back in the 80s they way over did power steering so you had basically no road feel at all and if someone even bumped the wheel while you were on the freeway it could send you into a spin or cause you to roll. So they cut back on the amount of "help" power steering provided.

But my truck was recalled yesterday because faults in the system could cause power steering to fail and lead to an accident. They've had 7 confirmed accidents due to this out of some 800,000 vehicles sold.

Ironic this story pops up a day after a recall for the very feature being advertised. lol

Re:I have a ford

[LanceUppercut]

No, you don't have "a Ford with adaptive steering". No Ford was ever made with the feature in question. Ford is just thinking about introducing it. You have a Ford with variable amount of steering boost. This has been around forever, even in hydraulic systems. But this is not adaptive steering discussed here. Adaptive steering requires variable steering ratio. Your Ford does not have variable steering ratio.

Re:Radical new way to steer the car.

[dj245]

Not even proper joysticks, but shitty mini-analogs.

All you need to do to discover how bad an idea joystick controls on a car would be is to try to use a scissor lift. They have a lot of torque (at low top speed), and you basically have to wedge your arm into the control harness and control the stick with a stiff wrist. Otherwise, you push the stick forward, the lift accelerates, inertia jerks your arm back, and you pull back on the stick. Rinse, repeat...

Or try driving any piece of heavy equipment over any kind of rough ground. I wondered why the front-end loader driver kept revving the engine. When I drove it myself, I quickly found out that rough ground + no suspension made the operator's foot bounce on the gas pedal and create a positive feedback cycle. More bump = more bouncing off the gas pedal = even more bumping around.

Also Saab tried a joystick control in one of their prototypes . Top Gear tried it out in one episode, it didn't work very well at all.