Wish these guys would go into the practical application of the tech. They do a great job describing the function but how that relates to the actual day to day use of the system is ehh…
For instance do any of you realize the system responds like you, basically meaning if you activate the brakes slowly, with barely enough pressure to move the pedal, the brakes will respond slowly with a mushy pedal that goes almost to the floor and has vague response because the system is applying the type of force that you are.
Push the pedal quickly and with strong pressure and the brakes respond the same way, with a quick response and a firmer pedal.
Normal brakes will deliver the same feel regardless of how you push the pedal.
IMO the reason Alfa's are not the shortest stopping vehicles in magazine testing has to do with the tests themselves. It is not an emergency, it is some one driving down a straight course till they reach a pre-determined spot, then they hit the brakes in a practiced manner and see how the car stops. In most cars that works to give a baseline. Not in a car with brake-by-wire though, since the system will respond faster when the driver brakes faster...in a real panic situation, especially with bad traction thrown in (wet road or dirt), an Alfa will stop much faster than it's competitors. Trying to get a buddy with a Grand Cherokee to let me record a direct comparison between it and the Stelvio, he doesn't want to. Because it is embarrassing. We have played around off road and his car cannot turn, brake, or accelerate anywhere near to what the Stelvio does. Not even close, 60-0 braking at the drylakebed was about 200 feet further in his car, it also took him almost another 100 feet just to hit 60. In terms of turning, it was just funny....not a competition.
So, he told another friend who has an Audi Q5. He thought that could take me off my high horse. Didn't happen. In anyway you want to compare, braking, acceleration, turning, once you put them on dirt the Stelvio simply runs away laughing. It doesn't walk, it runs...not close. Buddy with the Audi still doesn't want to talk to me about it, actually left mad when we got together to compare the vehicles, and won't give me the footage from his camera for me to use on a video! His cost almost $8000 more with all the options and could not keep up. He is also mad that after a day of driving hard on dirt he has interior rattles now, and had to go to a shop to get some of the underbody panels reattached. My car is like basically like the day I drove it home.