[Aditya]

When you fully depress the brake pedal of a modern car, brake pressure is distributed in the same fashion every single time. Fluid is pushed out by the master cylinder to all four corners, in turn compressing the calipers’ piston(s) and pressing the brake pads into the rotor, causing friction. On a surface level, that’s what’s going on — of course, things get a little more complicated when you introduce brake-by-wire technology, but even that is fairly normal stuff versus what Brembo Sensify is. As an indicator of how revolutionary this is going to be, brake fluid and brake lines become unnecessary with Sensify.

ABS is entirely unnecessary with Brembo’s Sensify braking technology. In fact, cars with Sensify won’t even have systems like ABS or need to take advantage of traditional systems we’ve used to improve hydraulic braking systems over the years like electronic brake force distribution (EBD). To tell you why as succinctly as possible, that’s because this system is capable of applying and retracting brake pressure to any wheel independently of another with practically instantaneous response. It replaces all of these innovations — ABS, EBD etc. — we’ve made to improve hydraulic-based systems with a single new system that can do everything quicker.

In a full emergency stop, those sensors are able to suss out the maximum performance of the tire, and get the brakes to apply the exact amount of pressure that provides the quickest stopping distance without the ABS micro-pulses. It’s smooth, calm and silent sailing from whatever speed you’re at, to 0 mph.

The mechanics of the system are even massively different from brakes in new cars today, and there are multiple setups that Brembo is offering. The most advanced setup uses electro-mechanical calipers at all four corners.

There’s a hybrid system available in the Brembo Sensify brake lineup, too. This system uses the electro-mechanical brakes for the rear, but the front brakes are hydraulically actuated.

Brembo claims its electro-mechanical calipers are a lifetime part.

Once the Sensify braking system is out there and on production cars, Brembo says it can update and “improve” it via over-the-air updates.

Source: Autoblog

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Wonder what legislatures and insurers have to say about this. Who is to guarantee the reliability and longevity of these sensors in real world conditions? As it is, they can’t make basic ABS sensors last the lifetime of the car.

[carthick1000]

I personally think that this system is going to revolutionize the automotive braking industry, especially for EVs. It solves a lot of packaging, service and maintenance issues (that we take for granted) in hydraulic braking systems.

In a current day EV, there are 4 major fluids one needs to change are:

1. Windshield washer fluid - frequently
2. Brake fluid - Rarely with some top-up inbetween
3. Thermal (Battery/Motor coolant) fluid - Very rarely
4. Transmission oil (for any gearing happening between electric motor and wheels) - Very rarely

I am not sure about the hybrid system that Brembo offers. But, with a complete electro-mechanical system, the need for the whole brake fluid and all the associated plumbing+components can be reduced in weight,volume, complexity and (probably) price too at scale. Also the response times (which directly affects safety) and comfort can be improved multi-fold when brake signals are transferred by wire instead of hydraulically.

As for when you should expect Sensify to show up in production cars, Brembo says it’s working with a number of OEMs right now, and the earliest examples of it are scheduled for 2024 sale. As for which OEMs and which models, Brembo is remaining tight-lipped about as it finalizes Sensify tuning.

If I have to guess, it will be Tesla (they are going to extreme lengths to improve the EV drivetrain) or BMW (for it's neue klasse). Looking forward to this new tech in next gen EVs.

Here is a good overview by Autoline network, who seems to have attended the Brembo sensify event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTuBLCaRa3Y

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by carthick1000

I personally think that this system is going to revolutionize the automotive braking industry, especially for EVs. It solves a lot of packaging, service and maintenance issues (that we take for granted) in hydraulic braking systems.

I agree, it’s the only and natural way forward. I would love to see some more details on their actuation and control solution. I guess it is possible to have a back up battery in each caliperassembly. Which would give you double the redundancy compared to current hydraulic system. Which tend to be redundant diagonally pair wise, or back and front pairs.

Same thing has happened with our hydraulic power steering. Almost completely taken over by electricity powered and electronically controlled. One thing though. It took the automotive industry well over a decade to come up with electrical steering that felt as good as hydraulic steering. Never understood that. With electric and electronics, at least in theory, you should be able to make a much better and precise steering assembly then with plain hydraulics. Even today, I much prefer the hydraulically powered steering of our older Ford Fiesta over our current modern electrical powere steering Fiesta.

Let’s hope when it comes to braking transition the industry is a bit quicker to get it right.

Jeroen