Brembo's fluid-free electronic braking system is coming to a car near you

For the past few years, Brembo has been working on a whole new way to stop a vehicle in its tracks. The company says its fluid-free Sensify system is going into production, and it shouldn't be long before you can stomp the pedals on one of these in a new car.

The all-electronic Sensify tech has been in development for years now – we last wrote about it in 2021, and the Italian components giant showed it off to content creators in the flesh on a test track the following year. With a wholly different approach compared to hydraulic braking systems, it boldly promises safer, more precise braking, and enhanced driving pleasure. Indeed, folks who tried it reported that making a hard stop felt smoother, more exact and linear, and without the usual stutter of a hydraulic ABS system.

By and large, you'll use a Sensify brake the same as a traditional one. A pedal simulator in the footwell will allow you to deliver input as before, and it'll give you the sort of pedal feel you're used to. But rather than having that connect to the wheels like a conventional setup, the system reads your pedal stroke, and sends a signal to its electronic control units (ECUs).

These in turn create pressure requests directed at the front calipers, where electrohydraulic actuators with pistons push on them to apply braking pressure to the wheels. Each wheel gets its own actuator, so the system can independently optimize the braking intensity. Brembo says this allows for a more enjoyable experience, and better performance across a range of road conditions.

The main advantage here is the driver's physical action is decoupled from the wheels, so there's more precise control in the way braking pressure is applied, and the driver gets more consistent feedback. And since there's no brake fluid like in a hydraulic braking system, you no longer have to refill or bleed your brakes, and you can look forward to lower maintenance costs and more accurate braking.

Brembo says it's developing Sensify as a plug-and-play platform, which means it should be easy for manufacturers to integrate into all kinds of models. It can also work with ADAS and autonomous driving systems, which can allow for enhanced safety on the road in both self-driving cars, and those with a human behind the wheel.

As the tech is finally entering production after years in development and testing, the company says it's signed on with multiple customers and "expects to equip hundreds of thousands of vehicles per year," though it won't yet say which automakers and models will get it first. It also told The Drive, "The series production already started for a leading global vehicle manufacturer."

All that means we'll likely see Sensify in action on a road-faring vehicle soon enough. I imagine this will be key for upcoming robotaxis that rely heavily on smart tech to provide safe rides, and they could benefit from more components under the hood that can talk to each other.

Source: Brembo via PRNewswire