this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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Right now there's also not any failsafes for the break lines failing
Yes there are.
First of all, all cars that you're actually going to drive on the road have two hydraulic brake systems that are almost entirely in parallel. Go look at the master cylinder in your car, there are two lines coming out of the side of it. The way that works is a floating piston; the brake pedal pushes on a piston that applies hydraulic pressure to the first line, and to a piston that floats in the master cylinder which applies pressure to the second line. If either hydraulic system were to fail, that floating piston will bottom out on that side and allow pressure to still be applied to the remaining hydraulic circuit.
If the rear one fails, the floating piston will physically touch the piston attached to the pedal, and be pushed directly. If the forward one fails, it'll bottom out against the free end of the master cylinder and allow the other to continue working.
Most systems connect one front wheel and one back wheel to each circuit, often in opposite corners of the vehicle. You can lose one line and still have at least partial braking force.
My car has a valve where you might lose some wheels but not all with a line failure. It’s better than nothing. The parking/emergency brake is a manual cable. Don’t know how that is implemented in this new system either.
Most vehicles have some form of dual braking system as a fail safe. Random internet image…
But this is the same as just having a split electrical circuit to a brake-by-wire solution. It's only a pseudo-redundant system because you still rely on a single type of mechanical connection to brakes.
Kind of but if the electricity goes out it doesn’t matter how many circuits you have. They all don’t work. You could say the same about the brake fluid but I can’t flip a switch in the cab to drain the brake fluid but I can leave a light on to drain the battery. That’s why I’m curious what the fail safes are. They could have multiple power sources. We don’t know…
I was simply responding to your comment that there weren’t any fail safes to losing a brake line and there are. Losing a single line or two lines in the same circuit doesn’t cause a catastrophic failure and you can stop the vehicle albeit with reduced braking performance.
Easiest way to design it would probably be by making it a NC circuit so they brake unless they have power to open the brake cylinders.
In addition to that a lot of parking brakes if not electronic are all cable and linkage actuated, not that actuating the rear brakes is as useful as the fronts but it's better than nothing. Or just jam it in 1st or R and kill the engine before u dump the clutch and make the inside parts become outside parts 😂 I've been in a truck doing 20 when it windowed the block and I about shit a chicken when all 4 locked up
Umm have you heard of honking?
I’ll remember that if my brakes ever completely fail at speed and I’m about to Tbone a wall
Yeah, tell that wall to get out of your way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighthouse_and_naval_vessel_urban_legend#Example
Aaah yeah cheers, thanks for the blast from the past hahaha
That slows down your car?