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Ah, I remember seeing the Bose videos and wondering when it would hit the market. I'm also waiting for those airless spoked tires!

Mercedes and BMW have their own active suspension systems that are standard in the high-end models, not sure if they look as magic as Bose's.



Pretty much all systems marketed as 'active' aren't really 'fully active'. Remember from mechanics/Differential Eqns, a suspension system is basically a damped harmonic oscillator. The two main constants are the springing and damping. The majority of cars just have electronically variable dampers. ie the same oem parts from bilstein/dephi/bosch with some silly marketing acronym on like Porsche PASM, MagneRide etc.

Some have variable strength roll bars, but roll bars are really just a 'hack' anyway. Very few have used a variable springing system (Merc ABC). An air suspension can change springing and ride height, but's it's slow.

In addition to low latency damping/springing adjustments/ride height, a fully active system in able to apply force into the suspension so the attitude of each corner is under complete software control, milli by milli. You can have a perfectly smooth ride, but no roll. All current non-active designs are a compromise between sporty and confort (high vs low springing/damping constants, and movements in attitude due to accelerating/braking/downforce/cornering/road surface.

The main problem with fully active is that it uses quite a bit of power and is very complex. Here's some more info http://www.autozine.org/technical_school/suspension/tech_sus...


Citroen DS had semi-active hydropneumatic suspension since 1955




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