Electronic throttle control (ETC) is an automobile technology which severs the direct link between the accelerator pedal and the throttle. Most automobiles already use a throttle position sensor (TPS) to provide input to traction control, antilock brakes, fuel injection, and other systems, but use a long sheathed cable to directly connect the pedal with the throttle. An ETC-equipped vehicle has no such cable. Instead, an enhanced TPS feeds throttle-position data to a computer, which activates a solenoid to control the throttle. A small variety of cars, the most popular kind of automobile. ... Traction control and Vehicle Stability Control systems, on current production vehicles, are typically (but not necessarily) electro-hydraulic systems designed to prevent loss of control when excessive throttle or steering is applied by the driver. ... An anti-lock braking system (commonly known as ABS, from the German name Antiblockiersystem given to it by its inventors at Bosch) is a system on motor vehicles which prevents the wheels from locking while braking. ... Fuel Injection is a method or system for metering fuel into an internal combustion engine. ... A solenoid is a loop of wire, often wrapped around a metallic core, which produces a magnetic field when an electrical current is passed through it. ...

The benefits of ETC are mostly unseen to drivers, so the feature is rarely even mentioned in consumer-oriented literature. The ETC computer can smooth out fuel delivery and acceleration, and can intervene for improved fuel economy or performance. It also makes it easier to integrate cruise control to the vehicle, since there is no need for a mechanical actuator on the throttle. Some drivers have complained about early ETC implementations "overruling" their decisions, however. In many cases, ETC reads not just the position of the pedal, but also its rate of change. This can lead to an odd non-linear relationship between pedal pressure and acceleration. Fuel efficiency, sometimes also referred to as fuel economy and commonly gas mileage in the United States, is a numeric measure often used to describe the amount of fuel consumed with regard to the distance travelled in a transportation vehicle, such as an automobile. ... Cruise control (also known as speed control) is a system to automatically control the speed of an automobile. ...

Similar technology has recently been applied to vehicle brakes, but this is much less common, and requires careful design to ensure appropriate mechanical back-up and fail-safe modes. Safety engineering is used to assure that a life-critical system behaves as needed even when pieces fail. ...

As of 2005, the Toyota Prius is the most prominent example of drive-by-wire technology, featuring electronic throttle, brake and transmission control. This is largely by necessity of the Hybrid Synergy Drive system, which assigns complete engine control and regenerative/friction braking decisions to a hybrid control computer. Further extending the drive-by-wire concept, in Europe and Japan automatic parking assist is also available — the car can control the steering to guide itself backwards into a parking space. 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Prius redirects here. ... Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD) is a set of hybrid car technologies developed by Toyota and used in that companys Prius, Highlander Hybrid, Camry HV, and Lexus RX 400h automobiles. ... World map showing Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ...

Some fanciful theories and applications abound as to what the ultimate implications of drive-by-wire technology might be. It has been suggested that drive-by-wire might allow a car to become completely separate from its controls, meaning that a car of the future might theoretically be controlled by any number of different control systems: push buttons, joysticks, steering wheels, or even voice commands — whatever device that designers could come up with. (This would have many advantages, such as increased flexibility for handicapped or disabled drivers.) Coupled with fuel cell applications, futuristic designs for such a car have been proposed, including a car whose entire functional driving components are concentrated in its chassis — the actual 'shell' of the car being a module that can be swapped out and replaced with different models as the driver dictates. A fuel cell is an electrochemical device similar to a battery, but differing from the latter in that it is designed for continuous replenishment of the reactants consumed; i. ...