Ford's Multi-Patented Adaptive Steering Coming to Market on Super DUty and Edge SUV

[68fastback]

Sep 22, 2016 | DEARBORN, Mich.Patented Adaptive Steering Technology Has Ford Competitors Spinning Their Wheels

Class-exclusive adaptive steering technology improves steering efficiency and steering effort – making all-new Ford F-Series Super Duty pickup and Ford Edge SUV easier to steer at all speeds
Based on driver input and vehicle speed, technology changes the steering gear ratio to provide optimal vehicle response for different operating conditions
System improves highway comfort and low-speed maneuverability by increasing and decreasing the steering ratio up to 30 percent; for Super Duty, it further improves driver comfort and confidence for towing or hauling heavy loads with tow/haul mode engaged

 
DEARBORN, Mich., Sept 22, 2016 – From carpool drivers to work crews, folks around the United States are about to discover the only steering wheel that works as hard as they do.

Adaptive steering technology makes the all-new Ford F-Series Super Duty pickup and Ford Edge SUV easier to steer at all speeds.

Despite the industry shift to electrically assisted steering, an overwhelming majority of new vehicles sold today have fixed steering gear ratios. Fixed steering ratios are always a compromise between providing steering quickness and maneuverability at low speeds, while offering comfortable vehicle response at high speeds. Ford has been awarded eight patents for the technology and 11 more have been filed.

Class-exclusive adaptive steering for the all-new Super Duty and Edge removes these compromises and reduces driver fatigue – especially at low speeds.

The system – all contained in the steering wheel itself – has an electric motor, a small computer and a gear unit. Based on driver input and vehicle speed, adaptive steering can add or subtract rotations to driver input at the steering wheel. Up to one full revolution can be saved at low speeds when steering lock-to-lock.

At low speeds, the system increases the angle of the front wheels as the steering wheel is turned – resulting in the driver needing to steer less to maneuver, explains Lodewijk Wijffels, Ford adaptive steering technical specialist. “At high speeds, the ratio is changed in such a way that vehicle response is more relaxed, more precise, and smoother than without the system,” he says.

Adaptive steering contributes to delivering the best ride and steering of any Super Duty ever, with improved responsiveness and control. The truck features a specific setting for engaging tow/haul mode that further optimizes how Super Duty and trailer react to steering input.

Adaptive steering made its debut on the 2016 Ford Edge Sport, which has driver-selectable normal and sport settings. Adaptive steering is optional on the 2016 Ford Edge Titanium.

More @ Ford... (https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2016/09/22/ford-patented-adaptive-steering-technology.html)

[The Bone]

So if I get this right it increases the amount of wheel needed to turn the tires at high speed while decreasing the amount of wheel at slow speeds.
So you are going down the highway and some self driving car is in the way and you have to turn the wheel further to get out of the way.
If this is like Adaptive cruise control than not for me. My truck drives just fine. Don't change a thing.

[68fastback]

So if I get this right it increases the amount of wheel needed to turn the tires at high speed while decreasing the amount of wheel at slow speeds.
So you are going down the highway and some self driving car is in the way and you have to turn the wheel further to get out of the way.
If this is like Adaptive cruise control than not for me. My truck drives just fine. Don't change a thing.

Think of it like this: when going down the highway at 75 it works at a normal ratio (you don't want a truck or SUV with a 'twitchy' 'sports-car' low-ratio steering going 75), but at slow speeds (e.g. parking) it gives you a higher ratio (less wheel turn gives more tire turn for ease of parking) and at around-town speeds a ratio more appropriate to that. The intent is to provide an appropriate and more consistent turn-response at all speeds because the vehicle suspension reacts differently at different speeds so the variable ratio effectively mitigates that to provide a more consistent 'feel.'

The beauty is that it can be implemented specifically tuned for each vehicle. For example, in a Mustang (there's no plan to do this in Mustang) possibly you'd want a traditional 'sports' high-response ratio at ALL speeds with a super-high response just for parking -- probably not worth doing it just for parking and likely why we may not see it in Mustang.

Then again (and Ford has not mentioned this yet at all, just me thinking out loud), it could be used as a pre-set for different steering ratios for different driving modes -- e.g. when in normal, sport and race modes in a GTxxx or for the various terrain-specific drive modes Raptor has, etc -- i.e. mode-variable but not speed variable. Also, driver-selectable ratios would also seem a logical potential outgrowth too. Also, though it's physically implemented in the steering wheel, it's computer integrated and controlled, so there are probably many more possibilities as the technology matures.

Variable ratio steering is not new. Mercedes and others have had it in a primitive form back in the old recirculating ball steering days and, to some extent, all vehicles exhibit this ...the steering geometry has a lower ratio when the wheels are pointed straight ahead but a higher and higher ratio as the wheels were turned more off-center (as in parking) to either side -- but that was baked-in-iron wheel-position sensitive which is non-intuitive for the driver since the steering wheel gives a different response depending on how much the wheel is turned vs the speed and/or suspension dynamics of the vehicle ...the latter should be much more driver-intuitive and is infinitely more tailorable to the vehicle.

[Carnut]

I guess I will have to take manual steering out of my workout regimen.

[68fastback]

:lol:

Several years ago I test drove an old Ford high-rider F250 plow truck with manual steering. It wasn't as hard to turn as I thought it would be except when stopped -- must have been about 5 turns lock-to-lock :rofl3: