Actually Mercedes did introduce Drive-by-wire Electronic braking on the current E-class & last-gen S-Class but after repeated problems they were withdrawn & the cars reverted to/scheduled to revert to Hydraulic systems. Some of the problems were:
1. No linearity in braking, the pedal is like a switch either on or off, no middle position. This make smooth braking quite tricky & irritating.
2. There were reliability issues also & even though Mercedes had built in a backup Hydraulic system the customers were not happy.
The argument for using Drive-by-Wire in cars (ala Airplanes) has been going on for a while but certain rules in Europe make it hard. They have to ensure very high levels of reliability which with the current level of Electronics is proving hard. But rest assured some time in the near future you'll cars with systems like Steering & Brakes etc. being driven electronically.
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