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Comment by WarOnPrivacy | Hacker News Reader

The new tech is a Brake-by-Wire system controlled by a touch-sensitive pad.

I did my best to extract details from the article's mountain of seo fluff. I think Bosch is trying to maximize complexity of a safety-critical system by deeply integrating it into all the other bits of the car.

Okay. We do build war aircraft that way and they're awesome but they also need a steady stream of $billions to keep them flying.

My recommendation if Bosch wants to be a radical leader in auto tech, invent tactile controls and place them where they can be reached w/o taking eyes off of roads.

Then blow everyone away by inventing non-blinding headlights.

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Non-blinding headlights already exist. Modern projection headlights can map where the light ends up on the road to illuminate your path while avoiding oncoming traffic. It just isn't widely adopted (in the US at least) as of yet.

Adaptive headlights have only been approved for use in the US for ~3 years. They were sold in cars in the US before that, but the adaptive function was disabled.

My truck was sold with them built in, but disabled. Turned it on via OBDII. Best feature of this vehicle.

On country roads, it’s extremely valuable for keeping the shoulder lit up with high beams to see things like fear and bicycle.

> On country roads, it’s extremely valuable for keeping the shoulder lit up with high beams to see things like fear and bicycle.

It is my experience that bicyclists and pedestrians aren't partial to the endless passing vehicles that are blinding them. Seeing is part of how they keep out of drivers way. I disagree that we should ruin their vision just so drivers can seem them even more than they used to.

Please don't blind bicycle drivers with your high beams. Driver will not see anything after you pass it from behind for minutes.

It is here and sucks on curvy roads. My commute is down a mountain canyon and if I'm on the outside of a curve (turning left) the incoming traffic does not detect my headlights and I'm blinded for the entire curve. I want them banned. How hard is switching between high and low beams?

We're not talking about auto high-beams. We're talking about headlights that mask out a portion (of even the normal beam) based on where other cars are.

Yes we are talking about the same thing. The recognizing other cars part of those systems is… not great. (yet? hopefully.)

> The recognizing other cars part of those systems is… not great. (yet? hopefully.)

Or bicyclists or pedestrians. We have all of automotive histroy to demonstrate that blinding others isn't necessary for driving, not even for comfort-level safety gains.

I don't know how he'd be deciding which oncoming cars are equipped with this feature, as it's still uncommon. And he said " How hard is switching between high and low beams?" which seems to be more talking about auto high beams.

Better -something- that's trying to mask low beams than the alternative (nothing).

> I don't know how he'd be deciding which oncoming cars are equipped with this feature, as it's still uncommon.

The technology is required on some types of headlights (which you can recognise), because…

> Better -something- that's trying to mask low beams than the alternative (nothing).

…they also made low beams notably brighter and reach further (= extended the angular output). The alternative isn't nothing, it's less bright low beams.

> Modern projection headlights can map where the light ends up on the road to illuminate your path while avoiding oncoming traffic.

Ask any EU trucker about this and they will curse you out with the most creative expletives you have heard in your life. At least the existing systems are apparently hot garbage, especially on highways where some oncoming truck headlights might be hidden by the median yet you can still blind the trucker themselves (since they're higher up).

My recommendation to Bosch is to blame any problems on floor mats.

> I think Bosch is trying to maximize complexity of a safety-critical system by deeply integrating it into all the other bits of the car.

Wait until you hear about how the brake pedal works in hybrids and EVs!

I'm only joking a little. There are good reasons to integrate the brakes with electronics in the car, with regenerative braking being the smallest of them.

Are you saying none of them mechanically push the brake pads?

From the driver's perspective, they push the brake pedal and it just works.

Under the hood, there is software determining how much braking power the motor can provide. The car will maximize that and only use the friction brakes at the very end, or when there is nowhere to dump the energy. My car (a series hybrid) powers the generator if the battery is full and gets rid of the energy as engine braking.

As a result, the car is significantly more fuel efficient AND the brakes last much longer. Yes, it's because sometimes I push the brakes and the brake pads don't get mechanically pushed.

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