That article sums it up nicely, without crossing into the realm of intellectual property infringement.
My favorite fact of this system is that it reacts to change faster than the conventional linkage. The possibilities for a truly customizable experience behind the wheel are increased by orders of magnitude. I would trade some high load track driving feedback to own this system and never think twice about it. Having the ability to use a light, wide ratio for parking lot maneuvering then at speed switching to an aggressive heavy incredibly tight ratio is just pretty cool. It makes the old servo based pressure limiting hydraulic systems look very outdated.
As a car guy I cannot wait to see the advancement of this technology. Think about it...this is the first real EPS system that offers a sport option that actually makes a change to its' function
(to the best of my knowledge). I know it may not be the most genuine feel when tearing around a track...but I would be willing to bet it is still highly effective when merging onto an empty freeway entrance early in the morning when conditions are perfect. All of this is done while not draining any load off of the ICE, or requiring an electric pump to generate pressure. Most hybrids used a system like the one used on the Prius or Versa, or an electric oil pump like the M35h, but their goals were slightly different. I would expect the next generation of this system to include a little more active feedback control, but it would be optional, I suspect people will get used to not feeling every imperfection in the road.
This is what Nissan has to say about it,(
Nissan Global) still not a ton of details but you can see what they have built and what they are thinking about doing with it.
