The US-based chassis design company ClearMotion has taken up a mission to prove to the world that active car suspension is not a luxury only accessible to the rich. First prototypes are already being tested by car manufacturers the world over.
The main purpose of active suspension is to hold the car body as level as possible, despite any bumps or uneven parts of the road. As a luxury option, it introduced a brand new level of comfort for the driver and passengers, but couldn’t be made cheaper due to technological limitations. Until now, apparently.
ClearMotion has pioneered a rather straightforward approach to shock absorption. It amended each telescopic damper with its own dedicated pump and an electric hydraulic valve. Every time a car rides over a pothole, the pump presses the ring down during the rebound stroke and then pulls it back up during the compression stroke. Additionally, the car electronics gathers road quality data together with the GPS coordinates and stores it in a cloud database. Should the driver choose to go the same way more than once, the suspension will ‘remember’ all the bumps and potholes and prepare accordingly.
Car manufacturers have already been putting the ClearMotion suspension system to test for two years now, and the results look really promising. For example, the BMW 5-Series gets rid of most of its sideways roll when performing slalom movement on the test track. Its shake is also considerably reduced compared to the models equipped with the old shock dampers.
ClearMotion said its tech will first be used in certain small-batch car series entering the market in 2019. If all goes as planned, it will then be adopted in large-scale production as well.
The company has never mentioned any specific brands that will benefit from the new active suspension system, but has let it slip that at least five major manufacturers are in the game.
Photo: motorauthority.com