A fault-tolerant architecture, comprising fault tolerant units, a
wire-based communication bus, and respective radio transceivers is
offered. The fault-tolerant units communicate using the radio
transceivers when communication via the wire-based communication bus is
compromised by a fault. The intent is to enhance reliability and
fault-tolerance of a distributed system architecture, such as a
steer-by-wire system for a vehicle. The novel drive-by-wire/wireless
architecture uses multiple wireless sensors and short-range low power
radio transceivers associated with various micro-controllers. These
sensors and radio transceivers allow the micro-controllers to communicate
critical control signals and drive commands in the event of a
communications fault, e.g. in a vehicle drive-by-wire system.