Q & A
How much does it weigh?
The basic design will require about 1kg in each of the two hoppers. Larger hoppers may be desired in geographic areas that experience more frequent and severe road conditions.
How does the Tracker relate to ABS and ESC?
The Tracker forms a perfect marriage with ABS and ESC technologies. That is to say that the Tracker depends on the pulsing action of the ABS that prevents wheel lock up. At the same time the performance of both the ABS and ESC platforms will be greatly enhanced when working in concert with the Tracker. ABS and ESC can only improve the coefficient of friction up to static coefficient. The Tracker takes friction forces considerably higher depending on conditions.
What about the car behind you?
Because the JaxBites, once deployed, remains on the road, the cars following will have some benefit from it. It should be noted that the JaxBites tends to be somewhat scattered by each passing wheel so those benefits are limited. Limiting rear end collisions might have several strategies such as steering maneuvers, limited JaxBites deployment, and monitoring following traffic as part of the control algorithms.
How does the Tracker compare to winter tire performance?
The Tracker comes into play only in panic situations such as crash avoidance or lane/road departure events. Once deployed, the JaxBites insures greater friction forces than are possible with winter tires insuring shorter stopping distance and tighter turning radius. However, the Tracker is not useful for starting/accelerating as the available JaxBites will be rather limited.
How does the Tracker perform on ice?
Very well. Ice is a rather fickle substance that changes dramatically with changes in temperature and texture. Smooth ice near freezing is extremely dangerous. The points of the deployed JaxBites penetrate into the ice surface cutting stopping distance in half or less depending on the rate of deployment.
How has the Tracker been tested?
Where possible tests are carried out in real world conditions. A pickup truck was outfitted with deployment prototypes and an electronic controller. Some tests covered thousands of highway miles. Other tests were carried out on large ice rinks created and maintained on frozen lakes. Still others were best carried out under the very controlled conditions of a laboratory.