"superior comfort by gliding smoothly over bumpy roads and superior control by keeping the car body level during aggressive maneuvers."
I suppose they could have called it "Activa" - but I think another company might have the copyright on that. One day someone will invent swivelling headlamps that improve vision when cornering. I bet Vauxhall come up with that first.
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As it's from Bose, it will be extraordinarily expensive and debatable functionality...
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The only Bose product I'm familiar with is my AM5 speakers which have given superb performance for years. Well worth the investment.
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I read often, only post occasionally
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Agree about Bose speakers but not sure whether this'll take off. Mind you, if it did it'd be a great excuse for our local authorities to do even less road maintenance.
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You will probably have to drive the car around in reverse for it to work properly....
Given my experience of BOSE products I will wait until HJ gives it the thumbs up before getting too excited.
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>>someone will invent swivelling headlamps that improve vision when cornering>>
I always thought it was, IIRC, the Citreon SM.
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Bose has always delivered some of the finest hi-fi speakers on the planet.
Presumably the suspension system will include volume and tone controls...?
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Swivelling headlights first introduced on Citroen DS in 1968 I believe.
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"Swivelling headlights first introduced on Citroen DS in 1968 I believe"
That's what I was alluding to!
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Could visualise the car but, obviously, not the correct model...
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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IMHO, BOSE are heavily-marketted, over-priced mediocracy these days. Take apart most of their speakers and its just a really cheap paper coned driver with a smudged CHINA or TAIWAN stamped on the magnet. What BOSE do best is research most of which was done bu the late Aman Bose an Indian fellow, then BOSE patents it and sues all the other manufacturers! So maybe this is just a big papent making excercise? So they can either license or sue the motor industray in years to come.
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But active suspension is nothing new, Lotus were using it before anyone else in F1....until it got banned.
IIRC it was computer controlled damping and spring heights to maintain a given ride height. Ride height could be changed to
reflect different conditions/tyres or surface type.
StarGazer
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Spot on Stargazer!
A brief (not overly technical!) review can be found by following the link below;
www-control.eng.cam.ac.uk/gww/what_is_active.html
The only really clever bit is the algorithm embedded in the software. There have been lots of papers published on the subject over the years, particularly in Vehicle System Dynamics.
number_cruncher
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who cares whether it is new and invented by Bose or old-hat, known by everybody, blah blah.
Have they come up with a system which is usable, effective and available ? Does it work ? If so, I really want it.
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I do.
I care about it, not from a consumer's point of view, but from an engineering and technical viewpoint. That the technicalities may not interest you is, perhaps, your loss.
I too am interested in availability, effectiveness, efficiency and so on, just like you.
number_cruncher
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Mark,
I agree, if it works then release it as a worthwhile safety feature. But realistically Bose will sell to the highest bidding motor manufacturer which will limit its application to one or two marques.
Eventually the technology will become cheaper as other manufacturers implement their own versions (working around any patent applications) and it will eventually get handed down to the cheaper cars.
Whether such a system is ever going to be cheap enough to replace a Macpherson strut with coil spring and axial damper I very much doubt.
So we will end up with more expensive vehicles able to corner without roll and totally ignore speed reduction measures and cheaper cars which have to suffer the proliferation of speed bumps.
Aside from the above few paragraphs as a scientist I am interested in the implementation as I actually went for a job on the lotus system soon after finishing my PhD (didnt get it) and I have used linear electromagnetic motors to great effect on one particular instrument on a telescope. These motors are great for some things but to work reliabily they require a robust encoding system. The motors themselves are also high current and moderate voltage. (typically 24V) and the amplifiers and control electronics are very specialised, also as number cruncher says, the servo algorithms are very specialised and clever.
Getting this all to work reliably in a motoring environment as opposed to a demo vehicle will be a challenge. Fixing and maintenance will also be interesting. Another subsystem replaced in its entirety due a single component failure because 'thats what the computer diagnosis told us'. You dont typically get good servo system specialists in most garage workshops!
cheers
StarGazer
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"Getting this all to work reliably in a motoring environment as opposed to a demo vehicle will be a challenge"
I'll say! And if it goes wrong, it could throw you into the nearest hedge...
Acquaintance of mine with a new C5 reports that, among other things, the on-board computer registers the presence of phantom children in the back and locks the rear doors, and refuses to shut the sun-roof unless it deems it appropriate!
As it happens, I love oleo-pneumatic suspension, but that is basically a robust (and relatively simple) mechanical system. Given that a well-designed spring suspension can cope with speed bumps (just buy a Subaru WRC), I can't help feeling that the Bose system is just an exotic way of doing the same thing. What do Americans know about going round corners, anyway..? :-)
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Yes, but looking at the BOSE videos, it's a light-year ahead of current active suspensions. The Lexus lack of up or down motion on the videos looked uncanny.
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Having come very late to this discussion, I too think it looks incredibly impressive and want one NOW.
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If Mercedes and BMW build such wonderfully smooth luxury cars , how come BOSE tested on a Lexus?
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"Swivelling headlights first introduced on Citroen DS in 1968 I believe" That's what I was alluding to!
IIRC one of the New Ford Focus models also has swivelling headlaights.
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>>someone will invent swivelling headlamps that improve vision when cornering>> I always thought it was, IIRC, the Citreon SM. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
And DS21 and 23 I seem to remember.
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Active suspension was tried in F1 and didn't cut the mustard. Seductive complexity but I wouldn't want an early production example...
It won't be cheap.
The answer to speed bumps is long-travel suspension with easily replaceable bushes and high-quality, properly tuned dampers. Available technology.
Seductive though, that uncanny level ride.
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I thought the answer to speed bumps was to drive more slowly? Low tech, and free. With the added attraction of eliminating the regulators next steps, one of which would be to improve speed detection methods.
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The slower you drive over these concrete obstacles the more uncomfortable they are, as the suspension doesn't move, the whole car does!
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If you drive slowly over speed bumps - and some people go over them agonisingly slowly - you are getting in the way and succumbing to the vile manoeuvre that speed bumps are.
There's an infuriating quality about the British (our ethnic brethren): when in doubt they drive at a slow, sulky, damn-them-all sort of speed. A lot of halfwits slow down to the most uncomfortabls speed possible - a crawl - when they get into a cobbled street. Do these people imagine thaey are preserving their suspension or tyres? The correct speed over cobbles, except in the wet when they are super-slippery, is as fast as possible. But these crawlers are at least fifty per cent. I want to kill them all.
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Bose technology is like religion - either you have faith (and have handed over the money) or you are a sceptic.
Presumably the whole point of this system (if it works in real life) is to allow people to ignore at least one type of 'traffic calming'.
Does this mean we will one day have two levels of speed for urban driving, one for the upmarket crowd (or believers if you like) and a lower one for the rest of us?
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Its fascinating watching the video clips of that Lexus wafting over the bumps with no body movement!
I suppose this sort of development could be installed in cars by default in the next decade or so.
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What sort of weight penalty and mpg hit would you take tho? Moving from a passive to an active system must have serious power requirements, surely?
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I drive over the humps at a suitable speed, and continue between them also at a suitable speed for the conditions. Whether I 'get in the way' is outside my control, as I have no influence over the sanity of those following.
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Nortones, do not be offended if I suggest that you may be too sane by half...
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Thats too hard to fathom, so I won't be:)
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