According to JoAnne of Mercedes-Benz Canada, the company believes that "mechatronic interplay therefore opens up hitherto inconceivable possibilities to further raise the safety and comfort levels of modern passenger cars." She points to the electronically controlled suspension system that Mercedes launched in the flagship CL coupe last year which instantly adapts to prevailing driving conditions.
SBC, which has been developed by Mercedes in conjunction with Bosch, "turns the conventional hydraulic brake into an even more powerful mechatronic system." Caza says SBC's microcomputer is "integrated into the car's data network and processes information from various electronic control units. In this way, electric impulses and sensor signals can be instantly converted into braking commands, providing a marked safety and comfort gain for drivers." The big advance is the use of electronics instead of the mechanical vacuum system used today. In today's technological climate, it sounds like something from, well, a previous century, and if you don't already know how it works you probably couldn't be less interested in finding out now. So...
SBC replaces a bunch of mechanical stuff and the brake booster with electronics, Caza says. Sensors gauge the pressure inside the master brake cylinder as well as the speed with which the brake pedal is operated, and pass this data to the SBC computer as electric impulses.
To make technophobes feel better, Mercedes has designed SBC to work more or less the old way in case there's a big time computer failure, so it will always stop. Caza says that, to provide the driver with the familiar brake feel, Mercedes engineers have developed a special simulator which is linked to the tandem master cylinder and which moves the pedal using spring force and hydraulics.