Bosch – Brake By Wire System

Bosch – Brake By Wire System
By Thom Cannell
Senior Editor Technology Desk
Michigan Bureau
The Auto Channel

September 24, 2024; A friend of mine once described Porsche brakes as like “stepping onto a brick”. That is, very firm and very linear and very direct. Bosch’s brake-by-wire system really does feel like stepping onto a brick—when parked.

We recently drove vehicles equipped with this system at Bosch’s Flat Rock, Michigan test track. We were warned that “the pedal will move, at most, about a quarter inch” and expected the experience to be extremely weird. Instead, the system felt almost normal with the left foot applying pressure and the vehicle stopping. Most surprising was how the “immovable Brake Control Pad” responded to light, medium or heavy pressure, just like current brake systems. The sensation was eerily familiar and took only a single brake application to master.

This innocuous pedal, the Bosch Brake Control Pad, is the future of baking systems. It adapts to right or left-hand drive, requires no mechanical connections and integrates with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems.

You might expect that after decades of driving hydraulic brakes, stepping on a thing that was, in essence only a brick and not a standard brake pedal with its 1 to 4 inches of travel, would be hard to adjust to. Actually, it took only the first experience of breaking. Part of that is because of shoes and the skin of our feet which compress. Part of it is simply the adaptability of the human; it felt entirely natural but a bit strange.

Why is this important? Brake-by-wire is a foreseeable future, necessary for new autonomous vehicles appearing throughout the next decade. For current EVs and their “one pedal” driving the lesson is even more applicable. Today, brake-by-wire systems activate a vehicle’s standard hydraulic brake system. Tomorrow, electrically activated brake systems are almost mandatory for autonomous vehicles and nearly ready for delivery to volume automakers.