With brake-by-wire from Bosch to the Arctic Circle

With brake-by-wire from Bosch to the Arctic Circle

For six days, over 3,300 kilometers and through different climate zones to the Arctic Circle: On an unusual test drive, a Bosch development team successfully tested the new hydraulic brake-by-wire system from Bosch for the first time on public roads.

“With our first long-distance test, we impressively demonstrated that we can bring a real brake-by-wire system safely and successfully from the test track to the road.”

Hagen Kuckert

Hagen Kuckert

Project manager for the by-wire brake actuator

What sets brake-by-wire apart: This solution completely eliminates the mechanical connection between the brake pedal and the brake system. The driver’s brake request is transmitted to the brake-by-wire system purely as an electrical signal via redundant signal lines. For this fundamentally new approach, Bosch offers a robust and efficient solution with two independent hydraulic brake actuators – a by-wire brake actuator and an ESP®. Today’s brake systems, such as the integrated power brake from Bosch, still ensure the required redundancy in the event of a fault via a mechanical connection to the brake pedal. This coupling via an input rod to the brake pedal is eliminated in the new Bosch brake-by-wire solution.

As a leading company in braking and steering systems, Bosch is working on innovative by-wire solutions for both vehicle domains – including this hydraulic brake-by-wire system, which is planned to be launched on the market from fall 2025. In addition to the hydraulic solution, Bosch is also developing a purely electromechanical system. The company has already received orders from various vehicle manufacturers and expects that by 2030, more than 5.5 million vehicles worldwide will be equipped with brake-by-wire.

Successful long-distance test

The brake-by-wire system is being developed at the Bosch development center in Abstatt near Heilbronn. The long-distance journey led the development team from the southwest of Germany via Hamburg, Copenhagen and Stockholm and a short detour to the Arctic Circle to the finish at the Bosch winter test center Vaitoudden in Arjeplog, in northern Sweden. Bosch has specifically applied for and obtained approval for public roadway use for the test vehicle in several countries, based on an extensive safety concept.

“The whole team has worked towards this event with incredible motivation and is very proud of this achievement. Our hydraulic brake-by-wire system has worked perfectly on the journey. With our first long-distance test, we impressively demonstrated that we can bring a real brake-by-wire system safely and successfully from the test track to the road", explains Hagen Kuckert, project manager for the by-wire brake actuator at Bosch in Abstatt. „We performed thousands of braking operations during the journey, were able to obtain important insights and data on the behavior of the brake system in a wide variety of traffic situations and compare them with our previous simulations. All this is incorporated into the further development work to further optimize our hydraulic brake-by-wire system."

Brake-by-wire

Break-by-wire

In a brake-by-wire system, the mechanical connection between the brake pedal and the brake system is replaced by electrical signal lines. For this significant change, Bosch offers a robust and efficient brake-by-wire solution using two independent hydraulic brake actuators.

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