In the new energy era, when brakes become intelligent, how to solve safety problems?

Not long ago, a star car company experienced many suspicions about track driving: while the driver was driving at high speed, the braking system malfunctioned and the car was in danger of running off the track.

 During the incident, different drivers’ evaluations of the vehicle’s braking system were surprisingly similar: “It can be clearly felt that under the same force, the braking stroke has become longer”, “In normal mechanical braking, if the brake pads are worn out, the brake pedal will feel worse. Softening, this car clearly hasn’t.”

 In response, the car company conducted an urgent technical review internally. Recently, the phased analysis results of the braking system have been released. The report shows that there is no problem with the performance of the brake pads used in the vehicle, and some core indicators are even better than the best-selling products on the market. However, after the brake pads heat decay, the braking force required is indeed greater than similar products.

Relevant engineers analyzed that under the condition of heat failure, applying the maximum force of traditional mechanical braking to this car will not fully clamp the brake pads and release the maximum braking force. "Let's put it this way, even if the pedal is depressed, it will not work." Release the maximum braking force of the brake pads."

This car uses the industry's most advanced fully decoupled brake-by-wire technology. Simply put, the core link between the pedal and the brake pad has changed from a mechanical booster to an electronic controller, and the mechanical structure has been simplified or even eliminated. The driver's braking feel depends entirely on the car manufacturer's adjustment.

Such brake-by-wire technology is increasingly being applied to new cars, especially new energy vehicles. Brake adjustment, which is related to personal safety, will become a braking dilemma faced by car companies now or in the future.

However, brake-by-wire is the only way for the development of automobile intelligence. The evolution from assisted driving to autonomous driving also puts forward new requirements for braking: it needs faster and more flexible response, and it also assumes the role of redundant backup. .

This determines that brakes must abandon the mechanical connection in the past and replace it with a communication harness connection between the on-board computer and the controller. This is what we call the brake-by-wire era.

The process of brakes becoming intelligent is a process of becoming more economical and agile, but at the same time, with the addition of intelligent technology, it is also a process in which engineers need to continue to "train the dragon".

The braking system was originally a mechanical structure. The core vacuum booster is powered by an internal combustion engine, and the high-speed operation of the piston in the cylinder can provide it with negative pressure.

But when it comes to pure electric vehicles, the internal combustion engine has been left behind. Without a source of negative pressure, the original braking structure is naturally difficult to operate. A new braking solution suitable for electric vehicles must be designed.