Dave,
My thoughts/concerns: Reaction vs anticipation
One disadvantage to electronically controlled traction is that the electronics
respond to an existing condition of slippage (no anticipation) and the driver
can/might see a "soft" spot in the salt anticipating slippage. A slight
reduction in power at that point may prevent slippage? Can the electronics be
made to anticipate (not react to) course conditions that cause slippage? For
instance: wet vs dry salt? I agree that using brakes is dangerous and using
throttle reduction would be hard to control gracefully. Subtile power changes
should be the ticket! and safer.
Power adjustments can be accomplished by the driver alone as soon as the driver
knows what to "expect". A signal system might be OK but I worry about lag
(driver response to lights, gages and such) and the potential of too much
dependency on the warning system. Driver ability resulting from experience on
the salt with the tires slipping is paramount to all this. We can unload the
driver of all the unimportant tasks and have him/her concentrate on traction?
That's real traction control in my view.
Skip (I still volunteer the car for testing but I prefer no automatic TC.)
At 05:11 AM 12/6/01 -0500, Dave Dahlgren wrote:
>The brain being a wonderful computer is poetic and a nice thought, but
>unfortunately pretty optimistic in the bigger picture of things. The brain
>cannot
>process what it is not aware of. If you think you can feel the onset of
>wheel spin
>in the 5% or 10% range I think you are kidding yourself, especially while
>driving
>250 mph on the salt with everything else going on.. Go ask a pilot that is
>flying
>a difficult aircraft and things start going bad about pilot overload.
>Dave Dahlgren
>
>john backus wrote:
>
>> As I view it, traction control is handled in two ways; the application of
>> braking to the spinning tire/s and /or closing of the throttle momentarily.
>> Either would be detrimental to increasing speed and handling somewhat.
>> Offshore boats have a similar problem where they have a throttle man onboard
>> that controls the rpms when the props are out of the water. I always
wondered
>> why this guy couldn't be replaced with an rpm controller. The answer to
>all of
>> the above must be that the human brain is a fantastic computer that when
>it is
>> in tune with the total feel of the vehicle can control the engine speed
>> infinitely with the feel of the car and the sound of the engine to get the
>> most out of the entire car under the current conditions. Traction control is
>> great for snow and ice but I'd prefer to go by the overall feel of the car.
>>
>> John Backus
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