by How the gas pedal feel has changed
Luxury cars of the past had a simple recipe: they focused on isolating passengers from noise, vibrations, and harshness from the outside. Today, software plays a significant role. Manufacturers are increasingly filtering, shaping, and reinterpreting driver actions in the name of sophistication, fuel economy, smoothness, and effortless performance. This is especially true for “drive-by-wire” systems. A week behind the wheel of the Infiniti QX60 made this physical disconnection so obvious that we decided to dig into the data.
In most modern cars, pressing the accelerator pedal no longer directly opens the throttle. Instead, your right foot sends a request, computers interpret it, and then the car decides how much gas to give, what the transmission response should be, the torque, and the urgency. In theory, this is smarter. In practice, it sometimes creates a strange feeling of disconnect.
In the Infiniti, the first 15-20 percent of accelerator pedal travel produced almost no acceleration. It felt like I was asking for power, and some committee had to discuss whether to grant it. Then, slightly beyond these percentages, much more gas would suddenly appear than I had requested. It didn’t feel broken or defective, just far from the linear response I am used to. So, instead of relying solely on subjective impressions, I started investigating.
What the OBD data showed
I connected a data logger to the OBDII port of the Infiniti and started recording throttle position, pedal position, engine RPM, etc. It should be noted that this was not an engineering experiment or an attempt to find a defect. It was a test out of curiosity on a single press car.
Reviewing the logs, one pattern kept repeating itself. Relatively modest pedal presses often corresponded to significantly larger jumps in registered throttle activity. Small pedal inputs seemed muffled, while slightly more effort triggered a noticeably stronger reaction.
Importantly, the graphs did not show signs of an obvious malfunction. We did not observe unstable signals, random drops, dead zones, or behavior typical of a faulty accelerator pedal sensor or throttle issues. RPM readings also behaved predictably. Nevertheless, the overall shape of the data seemed to generally reflect what I felt behind the wheel. Specifically, a response curve that was sometimes less progressive and linear than expected.
There are many caveats here. OBD logging is not factory engineering data, and parameter scaling can vary depending on the scanner, the signals available from the car, and how individual manufacturers transmit information. Modern cars also filter driver actions through torque management layers, transmission programming, and software logic. In other words, this data should be seen as additional context, not as proof of how Infiniti calibrated the QX60.
When sophistication turns into lag
Nevertheless, our experience didn’t seem isolated. Reviewers from various automotive media and commenters on forums seem to agree that there is a certain lag or delayed response in the QX60 at low RPMs. This raises a broader question: is “sophistication” starting to feel like lag?
Modern luxury SUVs increasingly pass driver actions through software designed to enhance smoothness, fuel economy, refinement, and a feeling of effortlessness. In theory, this sounds perfect. In practice, those same layers can sometimes create a feeling of separation between what your right foot is asking for and what the car actually delivers. The QX60 might just be another example of this balancing act.
This situation with the Infiniti QX60 highlights a general trend in the automotive industry where software is becoming a key control element. While such systems can improve smoothness and efficiency, they risk losing the direct connection between the driver and the car. For many enthusiasts, this could be a source of frustration, especially in the premium segment, where not only comfort but also responsiveness is expected. Perhaps future software updates will be able to offer more customizable response profiles to satisfy both smoothness advocates and those who value instant feedback.
