Sounded like a good idea until the downside was presented.
Replacing throttle cables on VW’s sure bought me lunch on many a day, so I kind of like the idea of items that break on cars. making them too reliable has the downside of less work for the mechanic, you gotta leave us something to fix.
IMHO the throttle by wire is a good approach. The ECM can integrate emissions control, cruise control, traction control, overspeed control, and fuel economy in one unit. The ECM reads the potentiometers in the throttle pedal assembly and adjusts the throttle plate openning according to its program. You have now become a sensed input to the computer. Have you noticed that most Toyota products have been raising the size of their engines and making them more powerful?
One question I have is: Can you bring the engine up against the transmission while holding motion with the brake? Lets say you want to do a stall test on the automatic transmission. Can you hold the brake pedal down while running the engine to full throttle to check for transmission slippage or torque converter stator failure? Just curious.
The cable costs $2…The Electronic throttle control costs $400 (to replace if it fails)
“One question I have is: Can you bring the engine up against the transmission while holding motion with the brake? Lets say you want to do a stall test on the automatic transmission. Can you hold the brake pedal down while running the engine to full throttle to check for transmission slippage or torque converter stator failure? Just curious.”
How are you going to make any money that way? Just replace the entire assembly or scrap the car, whichever makes more sense…I wonder how many dash lights come on if you power-brake one of these things…
Re the complaint about the vehicle taking away many driver inputs, let’s bring back the hand cranked windows, and discard the turn signals. You need to signal by hand as in the “good old days”.
BMWs, Minis, Nissans(Infiniti G37), and probably Chryslers(Fiats) do not use throttle plate during normal engine operations. They use variable intake valve lift to control air intake. I don’t think a cable would work in those engines.
Also, if brake overrides the power pedal, how can the driver heel-n-toe?
Unlike electric windows, electronic throttle controls have no advantage in user ease. I bet most be people don’t know whether or not there car has electronic throttle control or not.
If a electric window fails its only a inconvenience, car still operates and no safety hazard.
I bet is saves on auto transmission friction material!
For people who want to heel-and-toe, or want to do a stall test, there could be a manual override installed which would override the brake override. It could be switched back to brake override at any time, Also, it could allow automatic brake override when the key is turned off, so that the next drive would have the brake override.
Mechanical systems fail also. I have been stranded a couple of times with broken throttle cables on motorcycles.
On electronic throttles, the ECU can override the throttle opening command if the engine is running too slowly for that throttle opening, making it almost impossible to lug the engine. Also, a lot of the throttling in modern engines is done by advancing and retarding the camshaft rather than closing the throttle.
Even on old fashioned low tech carburetors, the throttle didn’t necessarily open because you told it to. Stomp on the throttle and the secondary throttles of many two and four barrel carbs opened only if there was enough engine rpm to keep a certain air velocity through the venturi.