Active steering describes a steering system for a vehicle in which the relationship between the driver’s steer inputs and the angle of the steered road wheels may be continuously and intelligently altered. Whilst active steering systems may be found in agricultural equipment and heavy plant, this article concentrates on the application of active steering in BMW passenger cars.
Active steering describes a type of power electric variable gear ratio power steering technology introduced by BMW in 2003 first appearing on the redesigned 5-series which varies the degree that the wheels turn in response to the steering wheel. At lower speeds, this technology reduces the amount that the steering wheel must be turned – improving performance in situations such as parking and other urban area traffic maneuvers. At higher speeds, the performance is such that the normal increased responsiveness from speed is avoided and it provides improved directional stability.
Read more about Active Steering: Overview, BMW System Mechanical Layout, Variable Steering Ratio, Corrective Steering, Safety
Famous quotes containing the words active and/or steering:
“Things happen to us, all the time. It was like that for a century, and it is again. It’s not like here: People always do things, because you are born with it; you are brought up in this spirit, the active approach to life: “Stand up and go.” We were not. We were always passive in our lives.”
—Natasha Dudinska (b. c. 1967)
“In our most trivial walks, we are constantly, though unconsciously, steering like pilots by certain well-known beacons and headlands, and if we go beyond our usual course we still carry in our minds the bearing of some neighboring cape; and not till we are completely lost, or turned round,—for a man needs only to be turned round once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost,—do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of nature.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)