Germany - Steer-by-wire is a technology that will allow full advancement towards autonomous vehicles, stated Wolf-Henning Schneider, CEO, ZF Group at the ZF Global Technology Day in Jeversen, northern Germany at its biennial pre-IAA 2022 press briefing last month.

By ‘wire’ steering means that there is no longer a mechanical linkage between the driver and the steering system. This offers major OEM advantages including weight reduction, product design, greater safety and accuracy in performance.

Schneider said: “ZF’s smart by-wire systems end the era of mechanical connections and enable a new era of vehicle control. ZF’s steer-by-wire technology enables new safety and comfort features, like autonomous emergency evasive manoeuvres or parking in very confined spaces. It marks a breakthrough on the way to fully self-driving cars and trucks by adding new design and engineering freedom.”

ZF demonstrated and presented its advanced steer-by-wire technology for the front axle in a passenger car with Schneider announcing that this technology would go into series production for supply to a global car manufacturer in 2023. He added that ZF had procured additional passenger car customer contracts in all major regions for its steer-by-wire systems, which would be rolled out thereafter.

Steer-by-wire in CVs to take a little while longer to bring to market

For the commercial vehicle industry steer-by-wire will take longer to bring to market, which, ZF states, is due largely to the complexity of commercial vehicles and current regulatory restrictions. The architecture of the advanced Electronic Power Steering (EPS), ZF says, is a cornerstone for the commercial vehicle industry’s transformation towards electrification and autonomy; it builds on the group’s passenger car experience and is suitable for a broad range of medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks as well as coaches and city buses. While EPS removes the need for a hydraulic pump and hydraulic fluid, so supporting industry sustainability, the conventional mechanical steering linkage is retained, as a fail safe system. Steer by wire eliminates the need for these mechanical linkages and instead use electric motors to turn the steering column and wheels, using sensors to calculate the appropriate steering force to apply.

ZF states EPS is ready for steer-by-wire and ready for up to Level 4 autonomous driving.