I've recently heard the term "drive by wire"? What exactly does this mean? Thanks.

 

It means that the throttle is electronically controlled. There is no mechanical connection from the gas pedal to the engine.

 

I believe that "The General" first introduced these to Corvette with the C5.

 

No conventional accelerator cable,the throttle is controlled by electronics Some of the GM trucks have the same set-up

 

"Drive by wire" refers to controlling the vehicle using electronic sensors as opposed to mechnical linkages. On the C6 the throttle is not controlled by a mechanical linkage. A sensor determines the position of the throttle pedal and one of the car's computers actuates a motor that moves the actual throttle. Other control mechanisms in the C6 are mechanical or hydrolic.

 

I couldn't agree more with everyone above. They all said the same thing, well, maybe except for jackcasa.

 

In the not so distant future you maysee cars where the steering will also be drive by wire - they are starting to look at these mainly to resolve some front wheel drive limitations hence I doubt youll see it in a vette anytime soon

Now drive by wire steering scares me :-) specially if they decide they gona use Microsoft OS to control it... I can see it now:

"We are sorry, your car has performed an illegal operation. You will now be slammed into the center divider. Please stick your head between your legs and kiss your *** goodbye"

 

Malibu allready has it

 

Yep. "Blue screen of death" on your car. Dealer would just tell you to re-boot and try again. Seriously, though, a lot of controls in some aircraft are fly-by-wire, and, let's face it, mechanical linkages can break, too.

 

So... the C6 has drive by wire then? If so, I would be very interested in opinions of this system in the C6.

The first time I experienced "drive by wire" was in my wife's new Toyota. After driving this Toyota for a about a week, I came to realize that I had a very "disconnected" feeling with the throttle. It felt like the throttle would act a bit differently compared to what I was doing with my foot. I thought maybe there was some variable cam lever idea with the pedal or throttle linkage. So I set out to find it and modify it... and low and behold, upon doing some exploring, I could not find a throttle cable!

I then discovered that the system was all electronically controlled. I did further research and found that Toyota actually dials in a throttle response curve which is DIFFERENT than what you input with your foot. They dial in a bit of a "dip" upon first movement of the pedal, perhaps to reduce accidentally abrupt starts.... fuel mileage and emissions issues too probably.

Once I learned of this, I was quite upset... soon the computer will be DRIVING the car too! Technology can indeed be cool, but also seems to be getting out of hand!. I want a car that I can control... me, the driver... not the computer. I don't need a computer to drive for me.

So... once again, assuming that the C6 does have drive by wire, I really want to hear some opinions here. This is an important issue. Does Chevy build in throttle response curves that are different than the driver's input? Does the C6 seem to have a "disconnected" throttle feel?

Funny... when I first discovered the "drive by wire" set up in the new Toyota, my first thought was, "I can't wait to get a new Vette, because surely a true driver's car like a Vette would never have anything like that in it." Oh boy... quite surprised here.

I've always loved the old musclecars of the `60's and `70's... but got tired of dealing with their antiquated and often unreliable characteristics... but at least you could DRIVE them!

Do I have to actually go back to drum brakes, points, carburetors and 12 mpg to "improve" my driving experience?!?!?!

 

On the basis of some test drives, I certainly did not notice a "disconnected" feel. The Z4 I have now has a "drive-by-wire" throttle, and it feels fine to me. In fact, drive-by-wire in principle allows the throttle response to be customized. The Z4 has a button labeled "sport" that when pressed, makes the throttle response much more sensitive and reduces the power assist to the steering. I expect cars of the future will take more advantage of systems like this to let the driver customize things to their own preferences and driving style.

 

That would indeed be great if the driver would be able to CONTROL the settings of the drive by wire, thus customizing throttle response curves. In such a case, I guess it can be a good thing. But otherwise, the drive by wire is driving for you.

My opinion of the drive by wire in the Toyota is that it's fine for the average shmoe, but certainly noticeable and a bit irritating to someone who is a sensitive driving enthusiast. Gee, I felt it before I even knew it was there, before I had even heard of the system at all. I kept scratching my head thinking, "why the heck does this throttle feel and act funny".

Well, in that Toyota now, I just turn up the radio and try to drive it like my wife does, which means generally oblivious to all mechanical automotive functionality.... just blast the tunes, hit the gas, hit the brakes, get to point B from point A, and forget about everything else. Kinda sad really.

 

So does BMW -- and it's scary:

http://www.caranddriver.com/article....rticle_id=8011

"...And the "active steering" is, well, active at distracting—too much gain at low speeds, too little at high speeds. If you hustle the 545i into a decreasing-radius turn, you'll get to sample both extremes in the span of a second or two. Truth is, BMW needs to fear the sort of electronic gee-whizzery that currently pollutes so many Mercedes models."

Here's some technical detail on how it works:

http://www.autofieldguide.com/columns/1103pb.html

 

Oh boy... maybe it's best to buy a new car right NOW before the technology REALLY gets crazy! I can see it now... if I wait until `07 or `08 to get a Vette, it will have "drive by wire", "steer by wire", "see by wire", "touch by wire", "hear by wire", "fart by wire", etc. There will be a big computer mounted in the driver's seat... and the human "driver" will be sitting in a wagon which will be pulled behind the actual car. Why the hell did I sell my `74 Trans Am 455? I believe hot rodding is truly dead as we know (or knew) it.

 

Hate to disagree, but I will. Malibu does NOT have steer-by-wire.
You are getting steer-by-wire confused with the EPS system, which is just an electric motor that is used for power assist, versus a hydraulic system with a pump.
Saturn was the first GM cars to have the electric power assist system installed. Basically, you have an electric motor on the steering column that provides power when turning the wheel.
Real life steer-by-wire uses actuators to actually turn the wheels, based upon inputs from a steering wheel sensor and other factors, instead of a rack and pinion gear as used in most US cars.

Going back to the original question, yes, I do notice a difference with driving my Vette or any other car with the so-called "drive by wire." It is not so much the feel of the throttle, I believe the General over the past five years has been able to get the feel back with the right pedal and spring action. What I find that I do not like is the lag time for the throttle to respond. I'm used to it, but would prefer it wasn't there.

 

The lag time is the killer - much more lag than in the C5. I can't figure why in hell they would put more lag into a "performance" car like the Corvette. I haven't had mine on the track yet, but I think that's going to take a lot of getting used to.

 

"Dare to be different. . .

 

I noticed this lag on the test drive. It made throttle and clutch timing a little clumsy at first, and believe me I'm not new to performance driving and manual transmissions. My wife's auto trans GTP Grand Prix does not have any lag and actually feels very responsive. Do you think there could possibly be a retrofix for this in the future that would modify the responsiviness and eliminate the lag?

 

The ECU does quite a bit of computation to determine how much to open or close the throttle. The accelerator pedal is only one of several input variables it uses in the calculation. The algorithm is designed to attempt to satisfy demand while maintaining a clean burn for emissions and economy.

 

Nope, we'll just need new and different skills. You
can see this already in the guys doing LS2edit and
the tuners who are jumping up and down waiting for
the beta.

It's remarkable actually.

I think the future is actually much more interesting.
Imagine this scenario (which might be only in a couple
years):

- you hook your laptop up to some connector under
the dash
- you do a 1/4 mile run
- you run some sw which analyzes the results of the
data gathered during the run
- it saves the old settings and flashes new ones
- you do your next run and the sw has corrected for
altitude, gas quality, humidity, etc and your next
run is 2/10 and 2 mph better.

Pat