When you think of an automobile, you usually first think of a gasoline vehicle. You think of combustion inside the engine, the oil getting distributed throughout the engine, the braking system, the transmission, and many other factors in these types of machines. Although this is a traditional list of useful components found in a car, it is a much different case in an electric vehicle (EV).

We could first start by talking about the braking systems in both. In a gasoline vehicle, it is a simple hydraulics mechanism. First, when you pump the brake pedal, a piston is pushed within the brake fluid reservoir that distributes the fluid to each four wheels. Once there, the fluid fills up another reservoir that closes the brake pads onto the rotor, to which the wheel is connected. This ultimately slows the wheel with friction. Now, this is a very good and effective way to brake, but it could be better. An improvement for this mechanism is to use the energy from the wheels turning to power something else, like a battery. This is exactly what EVs do. The Tires Plus company wrote an article about this energy loss – “What is Regenerative Braking?”. Tires Plus talked about how when you brake and the friction between the rotor and the calipers is created, about 70% of the kinetic energy from the wheels is lost to heat. So, instead of using calipers and rotors that waste energy, EVs use what is known as “regenerative braking”. What this does is reverse the motor in the car to stop the vehicle then use the energy from the wheels to recharge the battery. This much more convenient and practical for the drivers of the car, because the brakes will not have to be regularly replaced as they do in a gasoline vehicle.

One advantage that EVs have over gasoline vehicles regarding the comfort of these vehicles is the EV’s ability to self-drive. Since gasoline vehicles’ power comes from an engine, a self-driving computer would not have a direct electrical power source to function. This is why the self-driving ability is only in EVs. The self-driving ability is exceptional, and Tesla’s system that executes it is revolutionary. Chanan Bos wrote an article published by Clean Technica about Tesla’s system for self-driving and how it is very powerful. In his text, he added a tweet from Elon Musk about the validity of his writing. While Musk validates Bos’s writing, he also expands on it. Musk talks about how since there are 2 computers, there is complete redundancy. What this means is if one computer fails, it has a backup. He also incorporates the fact that Tesla insures that the system will not fail by syncing both computers with each other around 20 times per second.

Altogehter, the braking system and self-driving ability’s practicality and comfort of Electric Vehicles overpower those of gasoline vehicles. Since EVs have regenerative braking, you can save major time and stress on having to get brakes replaced as you do in a gasoline vehicle along with the EV’s self-driving ability that makes driving easier overall.

Posted By Mason Scoville

MasonS