Maranello’s auto-braking system is designed to save supercars from splitter damage on curbs and road hazards
No matter how good one might be at understanding where their supercar is in space, they can’t know everything. For example, how close a front splitter might be to a steep driveway or a speed bump. Ferrari‘s latest patent application aims to fix that issue for its customers.
No doubt, this is a significant issue for just about everyone in the supercar community. Front splitters are getting lower and wider for aerodynamic purposes. What works great on the track doesn’t work so well in the real world, though. It’s also the reason that many supercars have axle lifter systems to help get over such obstacles.
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Ferrari’s new patent application aims to solve the problem by stopping drivers altogether before they scratch their car – and it does so by leveraging tech that’s already commercially available. First spotted by CarBuzz, this patent application says it’ll use sensors to detect the height of objects in front of the car. Then, if the object is too tall for the car to get over without scraping, it’ll send an audible warning to the driver. If the person piloting the car keeps going, it’ll put on the brakes itself.
Interestingly, Ferrari isn’t relying on speed data from the car’s computers. Instead, the system measures distances between two points and uses math to calculate speed in real time. The patent even mentions pushing notifications to a phone or infotainment display, potentially covering bases to prevent rivals from patenting similar tech. Again, this isn’t the only approach out there but it is a unique one.
Porsche, Chevrolet, and others use axle lift systems combined with GPS-based memory systems to automatically lift a car when it approaches a tall obstacle. Drivers can even program in spots where they frequent to help the car avoid a costly scrape.
Perhaps the best solution is to combine all of these features into one. On the flip side, we can see some customers eschewing the axle lifter to save weight. In that case, this auto-braking feature could save thousands. Keep in mind too that as a patent, this could just end up on the shelf, or rather in a hard drive, and not in real production cars.
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