In most systems, the computer changes the steering effort based on the vehicle's speed: at parking speeds, the steering is light and easy to turn, while at highway speeds, the effort amps up, giving the driver a feeling of greater stability and control. The benefits of providing assist electrically are multifold: it improves fuel economy by a few percent, as the electric motor only draws power when needed; it eliminates the hydraulic fluid maintenance mentioned above; and it also enables a variety of features.
Any driver-assist or convenience feature that involves turning the wheels without steering input from the driver is enabled by electric power steering. Features such as lane-keep assist, automated parking and lane changes, and the ability to guide the car around obstacles all utilize EPS's ability to steer itself when necessary. Electric power steering is one of the technologies that will enable self-driving cars. Electric power steering is also more tolerant of out-of-spec alignment settings, using software to recognize and compensate the steering pulling to one side.
It can also automatically adjust to a crosswind or a crowned road surface that would otherwise require constant steering correction from the driver. What's more, tomorrow's autonomous, self-driving cars will rely on electric power steering, because it allows the car to be steered by an onboard computer system when on automatic pilot.
Between the hydraulic and electric types of power steering, there's a hybrid of the two systems called electrohydraulic. It functions like a hydraulic-assist system, only that the hydraulic pressure is created by an electric motor, rather than driving the pump off the engine.
This gets rid of the wasted-energy complaint noted earlier but doesn't enable all of the features possible with electric power steering. Only a few vehicles, including some heavy-duty pickup trucks, currently use this system.
If you're interested in a deep dive into the mechanics of how steering assist is created in either hydraulic or electric power steering systems, check out this Car and Driver technical explainer.
Here at Car and Driver, the three major steering characteristics we evaluate in every vehicle we test are effort, response, and feedback. Write your answer Related questions. What year did power steering become commercially available? What production car had the first power steering? When did power steering become standard on cars? Is it dangerous to drive with a power steering leak? Who invented the power steering? What year did power steering become standard?
What will happen if you drive with no power steering fluid? Does a Ford F pickup 4X4 have rack and pinion steering? What power steering fluid does a Chrysler new yorker take? Did Volkswagen Golf have a power steering? If a car with power steering losses all the fluid can it still be driven? What causes your steering wheel to become hard to turn? Why would my Pontiac Montana steering become almost not movable?
Is it dangerous when your power steering fails? Does front wheel or axle area make noise when it needs steering fluid? Where can one find information on what exactly power steering is used for? How do you know if your power steering pump is going out? Why is your car squeaking when you turn the steering wheel?
How do you replace power steering belt 96 maxima? How install a power steering pump for a corvette? How do I change the power steering belt in a roadmaster? The Car Guide newsletter. Reviews, specifications and offers. With a curfew still in effect, we had little time during the day to get to our locations.
Furthermore, we had to move some of the testing to the Outaouais …. The IONIQ 5 is eligible for both provincial and federal programs designed to encourage Canadian motorists to switch to an electric vehicle. And an almost wholesale switch to front-wheel-drive on most mainstream cars in the s added more weight on the front wheels, further increasing steering effort.
Coincident with all those changes, the driving population shifted from almost exclusively male in the early days to gender equality in the postwar era.
And automakers quickly perceived that reducing steering effort would help them gain popularity among women drivers. The first commercial passenger-car power steering system was offered on the Chrysler Imperial and Cadillac followed suit in By the end of that decade, it was widely available on most North-American cars.
Making them smaller in diameter enables not only a more comfortable driving position but greater room between the seat and steering wheel. The adoption of power steering meant that automakers have also been able to reduce the steering ratio, thus improving steering response in everyday sedans and SUVs to what were once considered sports-car levels.
In principle, a power steering system works by exerting force on the steering gear, typically from either a hydraulic or electrical source, in addition to that provided by the driver via the steering wheel. Various designs have been used to vary the amount of that additional force and to keep it proportional to the force or the degree of steering angle exerted by the driver.
The trick is to keep the system from adding so much force that the driver no longer feels a direct connection to the road. Too many systems have gone too far in that direction, with the result that driving a car so equipped is as lacking in road feel as driving a video-game simulator.
Indeed, it has been my observation that there is now a whole generation of drivers who have never experienced true steering feel.
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