In most modern luxurious or performance cars, you might have heard them boast about the term drive by wire, so what does this actually mean and what difference does it make to the driving experience of a car?
Drive by wire
Mainly made up of 4 components: throttle by wire, brake by wire, shift by wire, and steering by wire. Together they are considered drive by wire, but to date no car is actually fully drive by wire, with throttle by wire mostly used in electric cars since there’s no physical engine, and in some cars using it to have better control over the throttle.
Technology has come a long way as we know it, and the control of cars used to be handled mechanically, by parts such as cables, hydraulics, and your steering column. Now with drive by wire, everything is handled by a computer, with sensors in the pedals and steering of your car, which is then transmitted into motion of your car, with feedback to the driver being emulated.
Benefits
There are many perks of drive by wire, such as being lighter in weight, easier to be serviced as there’s nothing mechanical, and can be integrated with safety features to reduce the chance of accidents happening. It would also defer the need for actual pedals and steering with alternate ways of controlling your car.
Drawbacks
With the implementation of technology into our driving controls, it comes with worries of its own, like possibilities of a malfunction that may lead drivers into losing control, or hackers getting access and overriding the controls. There is also an increased power consumption since everything would need electricity to run.