It’s not generally known but drivers haven’t been in control of their car’s engine for at least a decade. When they push down on the accelerator, the engine speeds up and so does the car – but it’s a computer that controls that. The physical cable that used to connect the gas pedal to the engine is gone.

Cars have drive-by-wire throttle control now – which means you have the illusion of control.

Similarly, it is an illusion that you are engaging Drive or Reverse when you move a new or recent-model-year vehicle’s automatic transmission selector from Park to Drive or Reverse. There is no longer a cable connecting that lever to the transmission. A signal is sent to the computer and it tells the transmission to engage Drive or Reverse. In many new vehicles, this is made more explicit via buttons you push to engage Park – as well as the other ranges.

Steering is controlled electrically in most new vehicles, too.

The next – and last – thing is the brakes.

Brakes began as mechanical and then became hydraulic-mechanical but they have always been physical in the sense that when the driver pushed down on the brake pedal, the driver’s right foot directly engaged the brakes via mechanical-hydraulic pressure, which caused the brake calipers to clamp down on the brake rotors (or the brake pads to push out against the brake drums) creating the friction that slowed the car down.

Electronic controls began to be added back in the 1980s, when anti-lock system went mass-market. An electro-hydraulic pump was used to automatically apply – and release – braking pressure such that no matter how hard the driver pushed down on the brake pedal, the brakes would not lock up and the vehicle would not skid.

This was hailed as a huge “safety” advance. But things have unintended consequences. People no longer had to learn how to brake for themselves (without locking up the brakes) so they drove faster than they were capable of driving safely. ABS can prevent a skid but not a wreck. ABS also had the unintended side effect of egging-on tailgating, because people were confident they (well, the car) could stop in time in time if the car ahead suddenly slowed down. Instead of skidding into the car ahead, they just hit it.

Over time, additional layers of electronica were added to facilitate traction/stability control, which uses braking pressure automatically applied to individual wheels to keep the vehicle’s “line” straight when it would otherwise slide – but braking systems have remained fundamentally mechanical-hydraulic, with braking pressure transferred via fluid in brake lines that is used to transfer force (fluid can’t be compressed) from the brake pedal to the calipers that clamp down on the rotors (and cause the brake shoes to expand against the drums, in drum brake systems) slowing the vehicle down.

This means that even if the ABS fails, you still have brakes. It also means that – fundamentally – you are the one in control of stopping your vehicle.

That is about to change.

Brake-by-wire is coming online.

It has been developed by Brembo – the company that is best-known for its high-performance braking components that are often the basis of upgraded OEM brake packages – has developed a brake-by-wire system called Sensify that disconnects the driver entirely, via electronically controlled brakes. Brembo claims “a leading global manufacturer” has already bought in and will be introducing the system in its production vehicles very soon.

That’s not quite a first, though.

Teslas already have electric brakes. Just as they have electric everything else, including door locks that have trapped people inside the vehicle when the electrics fritz out. Now the brakes can fritz out, too. And more than just that.

Sensify/drive-by-wire braking is touted as a technology that can (and will) make make brake force application “smoother.” It will absolutely make brake systems cheaper – for the manufacturers (i.e., the car companies) by eliminating the need to plumb hydraulic lines during vehicle assembly. It’ll be “plug and play” – just like drive by wire throttle and drive-wire gear selection.

Of course, it won’t be cheaper when something glitches – because you’ll probably be unable to figure out why it’s glitched without access to the code and the equipment needed to get the electronica working again. Glitches will inevitably happen while people are driving, too.

What is certain to happen is that it will take control over braking away from the driver.

It will be software driven – and electronically controlled. The car will brake – and stop – when it decides to brake (and stop). This will work excellently when the time comes to implement the already mandated automatic emergency braking (AEB) “technology” that all new cars will have to have come 2029, which is only a little more than two model years away from today.

Brembo’s press release says Sensify was “engineered to support a wide range of advanced vehicle architectures, from next -generation driver assistance systems to fully autonomous applications.”

It is “designed to orchestrate the entire corner ecosystem, it supports safer mobility, while paving the way for the next generation of software – defined vehicles, reflecting our long -term purpose of shaping a Zero Accident Future.”

That is to say, a zero (human) driver future.

Well, “drivers” will be allowed to sit in the left seat. But it will be the “software driven” vehicle that controls the drive.

AEB is – like all the rest of this stuff – being pushed as another (the ultimate) “safety” advance. It is in fact another – the last – control advance. Electric/drive-by-wire brakes will cement completely the operational control over cars that has been advancing piece-by-piece over the past several decades. At which point, the illusion that people are still in control of their cars will be dissipated.

By which time, of course, it will already be too late to do much about it.

. . .

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