Abstract Aiming at the needs of high-level autonomous driving, a direct-drive pump-valve coordinated brake-by-wire unit was designed. To improve the response speed, control accuracy, and robustness of the brake-by-wire unit, an improved adaptive robust control method (AIRC-AF) based on a novel adaptive law and disturbance compensation was proposed. By integrating pressure tracking error information and overall parameter estimation error information, a novel parameter adaptive law with fast convergence speed was designed. A finite-time disturbance observer was designed to observe the overall system disturbance, improving the system's anti-disturbance performance. Finally, the stability of the control method was proven using the Lyapunov stability proof method. The results show that under sinusoidal target signals and triangular wave target signals, AIRC-AF has better response speed and control accuracy. In conditions such as increased permanent magnet temperature, increased coil resistance, or reduced flow area due to hydraulic pipeline blockage, AIRC-AF has better adaptability. The unit and the method can meet the demand for precise braking force control in high-level autonomous driving.