#HTE

Nissan’s High-Speed Ramen Delivery Platform Demonstrates No-Lurch Braking Tech

If you’ve ever taught someone to drive a car, you know that feeling of an unpleasantly abrupt stop; to a novice, the brake pedal is basically an on/off switch.

When my dad taught me to drive back in the ‘80s, he stressed: As you press the brake and the car starts to slow, there’s going to be a moment at the very end when the wheels stop completely and the car lurches to a halt, causing the passengers to tilt forward, then backward. This was unacceptable. So to avoid this, “Jusssst before that lurch, release the brake pedal,” he said.

“But won’t the car keep rolling forward, then?”

“No,” he said. “All of the momentum is already out of the car. Try it.”

I did, it works, and that’s how I’ve driven ever since.

Nissan is getting rid of that lurch without the intervention of an easily-disappointed parent. Their e-4ORCE all-wheel control system, which they’re already using in the Ariya, prevents that forward-back body roll when the brake is depressed:

To illustrate its efficacy, they came up with this somewhat silly but ultimately convincing demonstration: A small platform with scaled-down electric motors running on the e-4ORCE software whips down a counter with a bowl of ramen perched on top. It stops on a dime, but doesn’t spill a drop of the broth: