This cycle had the same effect as pumping the brakes, but it occurred up to four times per second, which was faster than a human could manage. The computer cut hydraulic pressure when it detected a wheel was about to lock (the wheel slowed down before locking), and sent pressure again a split-second later to continue stopping the car. Sensors measured the gear’s rotation speed by counting its teeth, and converted that information to electronic pulses it sent to a computer that was a little bit smaller than a shoe box. The system relied on data provided by a small gear linked to each wheel. The feature became available at an extra cost on the 19-foot long Imperial, Chrysler’s flagship model, for the 1971 model year.Īdvancements in the field of electronics made Sure Brake considerably more advanced than Maxaret. It called its Sure Brake anti-skid system “the first computer-operated, four-wheel anti-skid braking system offered on an American car.” It didn’t stop there it claimed Sure Brake relied on “space-age computer” technology to keep a car pointed in the right direction under heavy braking. The Detroit-based automaker teamed up with Bendix to develop a four-wheel, electronic ABS system named Four-Wheel Sure Brake that’s more closely related to the system fitted to every car, truck, and SUV sold new in 2019.Ĭhrysler claimed Sure Brake relied on “space age computer” technology to keep a car pointed in the right direction under heavy braking.Ĭhrysler beamed with pride. The next breakthrough in ABS technology came not from Mercedes-Benz, as many have claimed, but somewhat surprisingly from Chrysler. They could still lock when the driver mashed the brake pedal to the metal, which made the car unsteerable, especially on wet or icy roads. However, the front wheels – which provide most of the braking force – remained at the mercy of physics. On the surface, this argument made sense: weight moves to the front of the car under heavy braking, so there is less mass over the rear axle. The three aforementioned systems acted only on the rear wheels because they were more likely to lock up than the front ones. AC Electronics helped General Motors develop Track Master, which was available on the Cadillac Eldorado, and True Track, which Oldsmobile offered on the Vista Cruiser (yes, like Eric Forman’s) and the Toronado. Ford developed a system named Sure-Track with Kelsey-Hayes, and released it halfway through 1969 on the Thunderbird as well as on the Lincoln Continental Mark III. While the Jensen model was never officially sold in the United States, American automakers heard about it and forged partnerships with suppliers to make ABS available on their more expensive cars as quickly as possible. The FF used a car-specific evolution of Dunlop’s Maxaret technology. Jensen made about 320 examples of the FF through 1970. It was an expensive, low-volume coupe sold only in a handful of markets. The FF that Jensen introduced in 1966 stood out as the first production car made with ABS, and it even came with permanent four-wheel drive, but it wasn’t a mass-produced model that everyone could enjoy. Its engineers decided to make a sports car equipped with ABS technology after watching heavy planes fitted with Maxaret safely come to a stop on shockingly short runways. “As a result of tests, it has been calculated that the allowable operating weight of a particular modern passenger transport fitted with Maxaret could be increased by as much as 15%, a figure representing some eight passengers,” Flight magazine optimistically wrote in 1953.īritish automaker Jensen had its finger on the aviation industry’s pulse. Motorists continued to skid out of control like hockey pucks while the technology matured. Keeping it cheap would have made it far too complicated keeping it simple would have made it way too expensive. While the need to regulate the hydraulic pressure sent to the wheels under heavy braking was obvious, the lack of suitable technology during the late 1920s prevented engineers like Wessel from developing a commercially-viable anti-block system (ABS) for cars. German engineer Karl Wessel received a patent for an automotive brake force regulator in 1928, but he never managed to bring his design to production. It took decades – and a detour via the aviation industry – before engineers figured out how to build sensors that could prevent a lock-up of the wheels under braking. Early on, the driver had to perform ABS duties by repeatedly pumping the brake pedal to prevent the wheels from locking up under heavy braking. Antilock breaking systems (ABS) have been available on every car sold new for more than a century, it just wasn’t always electronic or automatic.
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