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Over twenty years ago, a video of a Lexus LS400 seemingly defying the laws of physics shocked the world. Riding on a prototype electromechanical proactive suspension developed by the audio company Bose, the luxury sedan bunny-hopped over curbs, skipped individual wheels over potholes, cornered completely flat, and held its body perfectly level at speed over undulating pavement. It looked like magic, and to some degree it was.
Sadly it was totally impractical for mass production in 2004, and Bose eventually gave up on the project and sold off the rights to the tech. Meanwhile, the demo clips lodged themselves in the internet as a prime example of amazing technology that didn’t make it. Every few years, the videos go viral again as a new round of people ask why we can’t get something this cool in new cars today.
And at last, now you can. OK, almost.
Last month, the proactive suspension—which is now owned and further developed by an American company called ClearMotion—finally hit the streets in China in its first use in a production car, the electric Nio ET9. It’s just the start of a deal with Nio that will put the suspension in 3 million cars. As Automotive News poi
10 Comments
franktankbank
Interesting, wonder how reliable it is and what its failure modes are like.
genter
> The original version replaced traditional dampers with linear electric motors that used sensor data to literally move the wheels up and down and cancel out bumps. ClearMotion adapted the control software and applied to active valve dampers with a magnetic fluid.
So, in other words, ClearMotion is producing a technology that other OEM's have been doing for years. Just off the top of my head, Cadillac has their magnetic suspension (which uses a fluid that changes viscosity in the presence of a magnetic field. I guess this is the same as what TFA claims is brand new.) The Ford Raptor with their live valve by Fox has a solenoid valve that regulates the shim pack. (Funny enough, I've spent all morning doing a FEA analysis of their valve.) The latest Mercedes Gelandewagen also has solenoid valves in their dampers to switch between soft and hard damping. Citroen has been doing it since the 50's with a purely mechanical system.
The basic idea is very simple: you want a computer to regulate the damper between soft and firm, as the road dictates. The implementation of this can become very complicated and there's a number of very different implementations. If I remember right, the Bose implementation required too much electricity to be practical. Most other implementations have some type of solenoid valve to control the pressure drop of the hydraulic fluid across an orifice. Again, the theory is simple, but mass producing a system that is cheap, reliable, yet can respond in milliseconds is difficult.
thih9
> Over 20 years ago,
Why would we be interested in the technology from 1980s… oh.
Also, this is Bose of active noise cancellation – very fitting, since this looks like anc for wheels. They did anc for car seats too and sold it to the same buyer:
> As part of the deal, ClearMotion also acquired the technology for Bose Ride, a special "active" car seat for truckers that improves ride quality and reduces occupant fatigue. Bose used what it had learned from developing the active car suspension system to create Bose Ride, but it remains a niche product.
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/bose-sells-its-futuristic…
mike-the-mikado
If this technology becomes common place, what is the future of speed bumps?
It seems as if speed bumps are a rather questionable approach to traffic calming, as larger vehicles (which should be a priority for calming) are less affected.
Animats
BYD has had active suspension in their Yangwang U9 supercar for two years now. It's over the top.[1] It can sense and jump potholes. Drive with one wheel missing. Dance to music. Do tank turns. There's even a LIDAR watching the road surface for bumps.
That's not just adjustable damping; that's a fully powered suspension.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIKAn8yDkpA
neom
Very cool that these folks appear to be betting that L4 is going to be things we sleep in or something, at least that's the vision I'm getting from their prod page on this tech, also neat they seem to have reduced stopping distance by a considerable amount (although no speed listed). https://clearmotion.com/cm1
HPsquared
Mercedes does this with hydraulic rams, it's called Active Body Control (or Magic Body Control for the version that scans the road in front too).
That system uses hydraulic rams in series with the usual suspension springs and dampers, and can handle up to 5 Hz (i.e. it controls the lower frequency part of the spectrum so softer springs etc can be used, improving both ride and handling)
hinkley
Do you want traffic circles? Because this is how you get traffic circles.
(I used to live in a neighborhood full of them and I liked them but very many people disagreed with me. If you make speed bumps not work then they will all be replaced with slaloms or circles.
fallinditch
The Lexus LS400 was a great quality car. What's the closest equivalent these days? (A 10 year old Lexus?)
SoftTalker
More stuff to go wrong. Can someone please make an affordable simple car?