Brakes, they’re all the rage these days. Young I like brakes, because they help you stop, not hit things, so things don’t hit you, and generally keep you alive. they are great. We love brakes.
But do you know what else brakes do? It costs companies a lot of money. The complexity of the hydraulic braking system adds more problems. At least, that’s Harley-Davidson’s argument Certainly not a Harley Davidson The LiveWire brand offers this very wild patent for “Virtual Brakes.”
Who knew brakes were so annoying?
According to the patent description, “Mechanical friction brakes, such as hydraulic brakes, add cost and weight, which can affect the performance of a vehicle, especially electric vehicles, such as electric motorcycles. Furthermore, mechanical friction brakes dissipate kinetic energy, which can “Using them to charge the vehicle’s electric power bank, which may limit the electric vehicle’s range and operation.”
The description then adds, “The embodiments described herein therefore provide methods and systems for regenerative braking of at least one wheel of a vehicle, such as, for example, an electric motorcycle. In some embodiments, regenerative braking is used as The only mechanism for braking a vehicle’s wheel, like the rear wheel of a motorcycle. Replacing the rear hydraulic brakes with regenerative brakes reduces the cost, weight and complexity of the vehicle, which, as noted above, affects the vehicle’s performance.
Emphasis on mine.
But yeah, it really seems as if LiveWire wants to ditch the company’s rear brake setup for a completely “virtual” regenerative setup.
Now, before we get all the warnings in the comments, one-pedal driving has been around for a while. BMW is known for advertising that its electric cars have powerful regenerative capabilities so that drivers do not need to use the brake pedal. But what I haven’t seen is EVs that offer such capability actually eliminate said braking settings as LiveWire suggests it wants to do. They’re there for safety, you know, if something goes wrong.
And for what it’s worth, LiveWire doesn’t seem to want to get rid of the front brake. But this is the least braking system I have come to rely on in my motorcycle career.
However, there is a bright side to the patent, as it also describes a “virtual clutch” that would provide riders with more control over the electric motorcycle. Woo? I mean that’s cool and all, but I’m still stuck on the “virtual brakes”.
I tend to be in the good braking category and the mechanical redundancy is also good as you would expect. So I’m not too sure about this one, LiveWire…
