Do You Need Electronic Stability Control?
by Jerry Gregory

The big news in the automotive world today is a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that claims that 10,000 fatal crashes a year could be avoided if all cars had electronic stability control. The biggest savings would be in so-called "single car" accidents -- accidents where one car goes out of control.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced it's requiring that all future passenger vehicles have standard stability control by 2012.

How does it work?

ESC combines Antilock Braking Systems (ABS), Traction Control, and Dynamic Stability Control.
Not all ESC systems are identical. The hardware is similar, but there are variations in how ESC systems are programmed to respond once loss of control is detected.
To better keep the vehicle under control under all driving conditions, the ABS system needs some additional inputs. This includes a steering angle sensor to monitor the driver's steering inputs, a yaw sensor to detect changes in vehicle momentum that might cause the vehicle to spin out, oversteer or understeer, and a lateral acceleration (g-force) sensor to monitor changes in deceleration.

Several automakers already have made stability control standard on all their cars or are moving up their plans to do so.

 

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