ABS works in reverse the same as forwards in most cars. Mine included.
Most of the time there's a sensor ring on the front discs that is 'watched', so to speak, by a sensor. Forward or reverse, if it detects a locked wheel, it'll function the same.
Not only a life saver, but also superior to any human. Obviously, a human with one pedal vs a system that can brake each wheel independently isnt really a fair match..
However, he said he drove a vx, and those cars seems to have some sort of problem with the abs. An unusual number of people turns it off in those.
there do seem to be some cars which have abs that triggers very early, though why they have been developed that way s open to debate, it may be accidental or it may be deliberate, possibly to cover a potential instability in the car if it is subject to higher braking force or as have seen suggested in the past purely so the customers trigger it more often and feel they're getting their money's worth !
what is interesting to me is an article i read had an abs developer ponting out that if a car has it's weight, weight distribution, springs, shocks, wheels or tyre sizes changed from standard, it should really have its abs re progammed for it to work to its best potential. apart from thinking about all the modded cars out there he also pointed out that a lot of companies have just one abs setting for a model, regardless of spec and almost certainly regardless of any optional extras such as alloy wheels
Is it? I don't think it's that big a difference with driving forward. Only thiing is your brakes will lock up sooner because the front-back brakeratio is wrong when you drive backwards.
ABS should work on reverse, as posted by other users, and honestly I don´t think it should be very hard to implement.
Probably have to add an abs(value) on the value used to detect when ABS should work. Should work the same no matter if it´s going forward or backwards.
Maybe needs something more complex like knowing which direction the car is going (fwd or bwd) and use this as reference, so that the ABS won´t "trigger" in odd conditions (like quick acceleration).
I really have some difficulty grasping the conversation, here.
Sorry for interrupting: has Scawen - once - denied that his implementation was meant to be universal? Because if it is, a fail when in reverse would be considered as a BUG.
In RL ABS is a system that funtions independantly from any driver-input. It detects two or more wheels doing vastly different speeds under brake-pressure - regardless of the direction - thus triggers some electro-pneumatic devices in the braking-system. Simple as that. Now it might not be engeneered to give best results in reverse though, but then again why should it be supposed to do such. I think it will work conveniantly well though, even in reverse.
The other thing that bugs me is the wild misinterpretation of driving assistence-systems:
ABS = Anti-Blockier-System / anti-lock braking system
--> it basically effects all wheels in a similar way since it is modulating the brake force the driver pushes onto the middle pedal. All 4 wheels have sensors on them that track rotation.
Traction-Control: a simple electronic gas-pedal with an intelligent "nanny" between it and the engine/fuel-pump stuff: it will disengage throttle when the driven axxis signals slip through the difference in ABS-sensor readings.
ESP = electronic stability (menagement) program
Now that combines all of the above (/builds upon them) and introduces electronic components inside the braking-system, some yaw-, steering and whatnot-sensors on top of all that, a "dsp" with some sort of predefined reaction paths (programs) and is connected to some kind of computational device which will help you regain a stable "in-lane"-kind of driving-state again, with no slip on any wheel:: by triggering each wheel's brake independantly and -if needed- simutaniously on it's own accord, even when there is NO DRIVER-INPUT on the brakes, what-so-ever.
Maybe the english language has now taken the term "traction control" as a substitute for the rather dull sounding "ESP" - that I don't quite know. JC from TopGear uses that term in this way, though - so might be a given fact.
Have fun!
PS.: I'd prefer my Scirocco un-tamed. But given the fact that the RL-model will prevent you from turning the ESP completely-off, I just wait and see what the Dev-s come up with in 2009
Cheers
DrBen
PS2.: sorry for this hard-to-read post, grammar-wise. It's late, I'm off to my bed!
Finally someone explained how an ABS system works. I really cba doing it myself. If you look at the way an ABS system works there shouldn't be any reason why it shouldn't work in reverse. The only thing that could be different would be if the manufacturer programmes into the system to ignore wheel speed differences when the speed is negative (read: reverse). That would simply be programmed into the system.
Another thing which I've noticed, is that the car's speedo isn't yet 'wired-up' to the abs system in lfs. Car speed on modern cars is calculated through the abs system. Perhaps Scawen hasn't had the time to programme that correctly, but I sure hope to see it implemented correctly one day.
edit: DrBen... what you didn't add is that the abs system isn't entirely independent to user-input. The brakepedal has a sensor attached to it. Only if the brakepedal is engaged will the abs system work.
It depends on the traction control system. With some systems, ignition is cut in one or more of the cylinders, or fuel reduced slightly. There's so many different implementations of traction control.
Thanks again for your help in clarifying this.
So my aim to introduce some rationality into this "discussion" finally met it's purpose.
On another note: Since engine-management is done mostly elctectronically nowerdays I imagine those other kinds of traction control implementations are soon do "die out" given the widely adapted use of stability management systems on new cars (Most not-too cheap new cars have them installed as standard on the german market). Would not make too much sense economically if any such cars didn't have a "drive-by-wire" accelerator - and therefor I expect all the variety-models based on a common drive-train and featuring TC to use a similar aproach, as well, as to keep dev-costs down a bit.
Am I wrong here? I'm no mechanic of any sorts, so that's why I'm guessing as well. Although sports cars might be a whole different story
I am a mechanic and what you're saying is mostly correct. The car electronics nowadays are combined by what's called a can-bus networking system. So your abs/tc management will use the signal provided by your electronic gas-pedal, clutch-, and brakepedal sensors, for example.
... seems as though we're going a bit off-topic though.
ABS works no matter what you are doing to the car. The sensors detect rotation, they do not care which direction they are going. I have not worked with systems newer than 1995 but the general idea is the same. I don't know if the ABS now days has settings in the main ECM but in <1997 GM cars there was no such thing.
If you end up backwards then either you have failed or some joker failed and took you with him. There is always those people that send you spinning for the heck of it. I don't want any help driving so I don't care about ABS in reverse or Forwards, or sideways but some people want ABS to help them stop when their car starts going backwards for one reason or the other. I have done 235kph going backward headed for the pits before. I made it but I can see how someone with a mouse would have problems braking.
In my sisters VW, you can turn the ESP off and you can do stupid things without any electronics trying to help you. I am going to wait and see how the ABS compares to my sisters GLI.
I like my cars without any assists.
My VW lacks about every driving assist known to man.
Dont know what i'm saying is correct or not but my opinion is that ABS only works when you brake so it shouldnt matter if your going forward or rewersing. ABS always works when you brake, thats only my thought about it.
I think all over the world people are getting very confused as everyone is coming down their street flat out in reverse then braking really hard to check that their ABS is working whilst going backwards
Buildyear: 1995 :P"
