scott wrote:

>> Well... less suseptable to EMI and corrosion?
> 
> Yeh the EMI issue is probably the biggest reason.

There would seem to be quite a lot of electronics in a car - especially 
a big alternator and a set of sparkplugs. That's gotta kick out a out of 
EMI, one would think...

>> Even so, how can you "sense" the amount of force the user it putting 
>> into the system seperately from the amount of force the power assist 
>> is putting into it? I can't think of a way of doing that.
> 
> Measure how much the steering column is twisted (ie rotation at one end 
> minus rotation at the other end) between the steering wheel and where it 
> connects to the rack/motor/hydraulics.  This will be directly 
> proportional to the torque the driver is applying to the wheel, no 
> matter what the motor or the wheels are doing.
> 
> In mechanical systems, this twist would cause hydraulic valves to open 
> and assist the rack moving, in electronic systems there is probably just 
> a strain gauge on the steering column that goes through an ATD to the 
> software.

I was under the impression that the rod is ridig, and therefore can't 
twist (only rotate).

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