Ann: Market Update - First orders for new SIBS Polymer brakes-ABV.AX, page-5

Hi Plough, don't know about Steini but I am not new to ABV. I do agree with him though in terms of extending the use of SIBS technology into cars and trucks generally.

As car manufacturers including Toyota (someone ABV have had some experience with) are moving into self - driving cars and trucks, the advocates of these vehicles are promoting the fact that without drivers, the vehicles can be made to be used non-stop. For example, Uber is pushing the idea of you no longer owning your own car and just hailing up one of their autonomous driving vehicles when required.

What this will mean is that such vehicles will in use more often undergoing more braking cycles and therefore requiring brake pad/discs/drums etc. that can last longer or can be relied upon to last longer. Don't believe me, compare the brakes on a car say at 100,000 km and a taxi at five / six years of service. The discs in the taxi get to the point where constant repair/replacement of parts is required.

One positive that did come out of the Garbage Truck trials was that by using SIBS, the truck brakes exhibited much less wear thereby extending the life of braking equipment and lowering the overall maintenance cost of the vehicle.

Now it is my understanding that the better manufacturer of current braking equipment does improve the service life of automotive brakes, but I believe that the SIBS technology (in a light form) may drive brake service life well beyond what is currently available.

Uber has already stated its intention to run its fleet of vehicles as long as it can thereby reducing the depreciation cost of the vehicle. This has been stated via Uber claiming that rather than retiring a car at 6 years old (like taxis are), their cars should be allowed to stay on the road subject to six / twelve monthly roadworthy inspections. As long as the vehicle passes the inspection, it should stay in service. I can only suspect that their approach will be to refit the interior of the car to appease their customers and to facilitate technology upgrades occasionally rather then replace whole cars.

Another advantage of enclosing the brakes is the reduced brake dust pollution which can be collected and duly processed via the servicing of the SIBS brakes rather than into the atmosphere as is the current scenario.

Potentially another advantage of SIBS for a computer driven vehicle is the reduction in variability in terms of the conditions experienced by the brake contact points. As these in SIBS are always enclosed in an oil "wet" environment, the effects of dust and / or extreme climates or ice/wet/dry conditions will be reduced thereby reducing one source of variability for the on-board computers to monitor and adjust to. Also because of the slower wear rates, it in theory should be easy to correct brake problems via regular maintenance (remember in a autonomous driving car, you do not have a driver observing the brake conditions). This potential could in my opinion be sold to the car manufactures as an increased safety feature.

Now is the opportune time to approach the car manufacturers as the their paradigms regarding what is needed in the cars of the future is unfrozen. If done right, I believe that a suitable level of SIBS technology could be incorporated into the new vehicles as the new braking standard.

BTW I have already written to Graeme Sumner last week about this.