this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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I have had hydraulic brakes fail more than while driving. They can fail even when the lines are fully intact.
I have driven home more than once using the cable brake backup after a hydraulic failure.
I also have owned vehicles where the heat-based pads and rotors system overheated and severely lost braking ability after a single stop from 70mph.
Luckily I discovered that using the cable brake on the cars I drove made them uncontrollable before I got into an emergency. I ruled that out once I did a full 360 at 5 mph on a regular road,
I learned to emergency stop on the transmission. Slow down on the gears and eventually fuck it up dropping it into park
So, yeah, pulling the e-brake hard on the highway can be... exciting, which is generally not what you want in an emergency situation.
This was more of a case of: welp, I'm 10 miles from home and I have a choice: pull over and arrange for a tow truck, or proceed with all due caution on the safest possible routes and get it home without wasting many hours of my time and hundreds of my dollars on the tow.
Now, when the fuel line got chewed by squirrels and a gasoline spray-fountain was emerging from the wheel well.... yeah, towtruck time. But bad brakes? Depends on the situation, many situations can be safely handled with the "performance level" you get from cable brakes on the rear wheels.
Oh, one tip should you ever try using the parking brake to stop while rolling: make sure you know how to release it and keep the ability to release it engaged whenever applying the brakes while moving. If you let it latch up, you're gonna be a passenger not a driver.
That sounds more like a lack of maintenance in my experience, but I wouldn't want to be where you were sitting when that happened.
‘Classic’ cars can be heavy enough to boil brake fluid in heavy breaking situations. Once the fluid boils you lose all breaking power at once on all 4 wheels.
Can also boil break fluid if a wheel bearing fails while driving( repair shop packed it too tight)
Also the magic stop juice comes out if you panic stomp on the breaks while headed down an icy hill.
Hydraulics can and do fail over time, and in my experience - the more that people fool around with them (change fluid unnecessarily, etc.) the faster they develop real problems. Brake fluid dripped on the outside of steel lines and not cleaned off can cause the lines to rust through and fail in under a year. Nevermind that stainless steel lines that wouldn't have this problem only cost $10 more per set to manufacture and install, of course the manufacturers use plain steel instead to save the $10.
One system requires you to push the brake pedal.
The other requires you to push the brake pedal, have electrical power, and a working motor.
As soon as you start talking about system safety, this shit is orders of magnitude more likely to fail and result in traffic fatalities, and for what benefit?
It’s all about system design. Hydraulic breaks are a known quantity with a long development time .
Modern cars already physically separate drivers from the transmission and steering. Steering is drive by wire and transmissions are computer controlled , I can suggest a gear with a button or paddle.
Breaks are the next function to be moved from hydraulic to electric systems.
If it is implemented as well as steer by wire it should be safe as the current technology.
You could say the exact same for steering by wire.
Breaking by wire along with a gyro can help keep a car stable when breaking in slippery conditions in addition to ABS.
Does not mean it will be done, but it becomes possible.