Car manufacturers and tech companies love touting new technologies that they say were inspired by aviation. Usually, this kind of talk is applied to some sort of new tech that replaces something mechanical with something digital. Or, if you’re in the RV world, perhaps it’s a manufacturer claiming that their coach is built like a plane. But as cool as it sounds to have airplane-inspired tech, there is one caveat.
The first commercial airliner to take to the skies with a digital fly-by-wire system was the Airbus A320 narrowbody in 1987 (the earlier Concorde had an analog fly-by-wire system). The Airbus system not only enables pilots to fly with a digital stick, but also has baked-in protections programmed to keep the aircraft within a safe envelope. Boeing launched its own system very soon after with the 777 widebody. It’s really cool technology that has proven quite reliable.
The auto industry has seen its own digital control enhancements from drive-by-wire throttle to Tesla’s steer-by-wire system. Now, as Thomas writes, Brembo’s Sensify and ZF’s EMB tease a future of brake-by-wire in cars. I think -Tom- has a helpful reminder about these technologies:
Engineer here,
People always like to point to airplanes as an excuse to do fly-by-wire stuff. What they dont consider is that airplanes make Landcruisers look like unreliable turds. The engineered lifespan, REQUIRED service intervals, and redundancy to make these as reliable as they would be on airplanes would make them entirely unaffordable on cars.
IF we can treat them like planes and ground cars that havent been serviced, then I’d be all for it. Unfortunately, that wont happen.
This is true. Airplanes have fascinating and ridiculous levels of redundancies and strict maintenance. Planes basically have redundancies for their redundancies!
Sid Bridge brings a more silly take:
Brakes are vital to your car’s safety and one failure could mean a pretty dramatic death. That’s why you should trust your braking needs to experts at Lucas Electronics.
Today, Mark Tucker has asked you to make a choice between a 1992 BMW 850i that overheats or a 1984 Bitter SC that may never run again. Along with Martin, Dutch Gunderson, Lana and Sally Decker says:
Nope. I’m not choosing between stepping on a LEGO or stepping on a LEGO with my other foot.
I’m not going to lie, I excitedly clicked on today’s Shitbox Showdown thinking Mark found a terrific deal on an 850i. No, he only found a down payment to future misery.
Finally, we get a lot of silly emails in our inbox and Jason just had to write a hilarious post about the forklift warning light market. Username Loading…. thinks something is suspicious:
This just seems like propaganda by big forklift warning light.
Beto O’Kitty:
Or The Deep Light State!
Username Loading….:
Maybe the illumin-ati.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top graphic image: depositphotos.com
Does Tom’s approach work given that Toyotas are already grounded to the ground?
I could never even aspire to make COTD… so many witty folks around here!