rear wheel steering is nice but not "cost savings" and
Tesla is first there. Just one word (and the long review from Cammisa mentioned that) ... steer-by-wire makes it easy to maneuver a massive vehicle like a truck at low speeds.... but you lose a lot of "feedback" and the steering is more indirect compared to a physical connection. in a sporty , smaller vehicle like the S or 3 ... steer-by-wire wouldn;t necessarily be a good thing for the driver.
Not really...
From Wikipedia:
Production vehicles[edit]
Up-fitted drive-by-wire systems, such as the
Paravan Space Drive, have been available since as early as 2003 for existing production vehicles.
[9]
Coupled with traditional steering[edit]
See also:
Steering § Four-wheel steering
Rear-axle-only steer-by-wire may be coupled with traditional front wheel steering for conditional four-wheel steering, reducing turning radius at low speeds and increasing stability at high speeds.
[10] Purely mechanical four-wheel steering systems have been available in production cars since the 1980s, with computer-controlled electronically-actuated rear-axle steering becoming available shortly after. Car manufacturers that have offered rear-axle steering in the 2020s include
Acura,
Audi,
Bentley,
BMW,
Cadillac,
Ferrari,
General Motors,
Genesis,
Lamborghini,
Lexus,
Mercedes-Benz,
Porsche, and
Rolls-Royce.
[11]
One such rear-axle-only steer-by-wire system couple with traditional front steering was
Quadrasteer. It was developed by Delphi and was offered starting 2002 on some General Motors trucks. Despite favorable reception the system was discontinued in 2005 due to poor market penetration of only 17 percent of sales of the same model, partially due to lack of familiarity with the system and partially due to its $1000 mark-up.
[10]
Rolls-Royce vehicles based on the Architecture of Luxury platform, such as the Cullinan, Spectre, Ghost, and Phantom, have computer-controlled four-wheel steering.
[12] The front wheel steering uses
electric power assist[13] while an electronic system controls the rear wheel steering and turns them in the opposite direction of the front wheels when turning at lower speeds, and slightly in the same direction as the front wheels at higher speeds in order to increase stability.
[14]
Without traditional steering[edit]
Steer-by-wire without the use of a steering column was first offered in a production car with the
Nissan Infiniti Q50 in 2013.
[4] The system has a backup steering column separated from the steering wheel with a clutch. The clutch connects the steering wheel to the steering rack in case of failure of the electronic steering sensors or actuators.
[2] After negative reception the model was retrofitted with traditional
hydraulic steering.
[15] Steer-by-wire continued to be offered with the QX50 and QX55, and as of 2022 is being offered with the
Infiniti Q60 coupe.
[16]
Electric vehicles[edit]
Production
battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with rear-axle SbW coupled with traditional front-wheel steering include the
Rolls-Royce Spectre[17] and
Lotus Eletre.
[18]
Production BEVs with steer-by-wire with no steering column include the
Tesla Cybertruck.
[19] Planned production vehicles with no-steering-column SbW as of 2023 include:
Lexus RZ 450e,
[20] Toyota bZ4X,
[16] Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle,
[21] REE Automotive
P7-module-based vehicles,
[22] and
Geely Super Van.
[23] As of 2023
Lotus,
[18] Mercedes-Benz,
[24] Nio,
[25] and
Peugeot[26] plan to offer no-steering-column steer-by-wire cars in the mid to late 2020s.