A report released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests 10,000 crash deaths on American roads could be prevented each year if all vehicles were equipped with Electronic Stability Control (ESC). The Institute says on otherwise identical vehicles, cars with ESC were overall 43 percent less likely to be involved in a fatal crash. ESC is currently standard equipment on around four out of ten 2006 passenger cars. It’s optional another 15 percent. ESC works to prevent many rollovers and other loss of control crashes from occurring.
Indeed, many single-vehicle crashes involve rolling over, and ESC effectiveness in preventing rollovers is even more dramatic. It reduces the risk of fatal single-vehicle rollovers of SUVs by 80 percent, 77 percent for cars.
Several weeks ago, University of Michigan researchers reached similar conclusions, characterizing the benefits of ESC as “like a guardian angel sitting on the shoulder of the driver.”
ESC is standard on every 2006 Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Mercedes, and Porsche. Another 8 vehicle makes (Cadillac, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Mini, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo) offer at least optional ESC on all of their models. But ESC, standard or optional, is limited to 25 percent or fewer models from Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, Hummer, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Saturn, Subaru, and Suzuki.
As a stand-alone option, ESC costs from about $300 to $800, but it can cost more than $2,000 on some models when packaged with other equipment.
The IIHS says one reason ESC is not always purchased by consumers is confusion surrounding its name and purpose. That’s because ESC goes by various names including Electronic Stability Program, StabiliTrack, Active Handling, and more.
“When ESC is optional, this hodgepodge of terms is bound to be confusing,” Ferguson points out. “It’s good that some of the major manufacturers have pledged
to make ESC standard on their SUVs in the next few model years, and it should
be standard on cars and pickup trucks too.”
How ESC works: Antilock brakes have speed sensors and independent braking capability. ESC adds sensors that continuously monitor how well a vehicle is responding to a driver’s steering wheel input. These sensors can detect when a driver is about to lose control because the vehicle is straying from the intended line of travel — a problem that usually occurs in high-speed maneuvers or on slippery roads. In these circumstances, ESC brakes individual wheels automatically to keep the vehicle under control.
When a driver makes a sudden emergency maneuver or, for example, enters a curve too fast, the vehicle may spin out of control. Then ESC’s automatic braking is applied and in some cases throttle reduced to help keep the vehicle under control.
06/13, 10:28 AM
posted by:
aj
Agreed.
06/13, 10:32 AM
posted by:
Anonymous
Agreed #2
06/13, 11:44 AM
posted by:
Ahk-Med
Life saving technology is so dumb. I can’t wait for the day that they take our airbags, seatbelts, and collapsable steering colums. I mean, they are heavy, expensive, and I can’t fix them with a screw driver in my garage.
Mike, are you sure your not 80 years old? You sound like my grandfather. “When I was a kid cars weren’t designed with safety features, AND WE LIKED IT!.”
News flash: very few people on the road are expert drivers like everyone here seems to think they are themselves. What about when the soccer mom behind the wheel of her 3 ton Suburban avoids mowing you down becuase the stability/traction control mechanism kicked in? Dosen’t sound like such a bad idea then, does it?
06/13, 11:56 AM
posted by:
Mike
It doesn’t take an expert driver to avoid mowing someone down… it requires paying attention and not driving a 3 ton suburban like you would a ferrari. Depending on the example, it may also be my fault for stepping out in front of a 3 ton suburban. Either way, it is still personal responsibility.
I said nothing about a screwdriver, but at the same time, it should not take an Electrical Engineering degree to change a spark plug.
The question becomes, where do we draw the line? Manufacturers have even developed a self-parallel parking system! Is that going to improve the quality of drivers on the road? Are active distance/speed sensing cruise control systems going to make drivers more, or less attentive?
06/13, 12:31 PM
posted by:
Mike
so, Harvey Postlethwaite, you prefer worse (even sleeping) drivers on the road with more technology, more power, and heavier vehicles than an attentive driver who actually knows how to pilot a vehicle properly and correctly?
06/13, 12:52 PM
posted by:
Mike
so, the geriatric who didn’t know his own name behind the wheel is a result of technology? Nope, that is a WHOLE ‘nother issue dealing with developing more stringent requirements… such as mandatory yearly renewalls for drivers over 75yrs of age.
“because saying that people should learn to drive might not save your life”
saying it does nothing. actually being a better driver will.
There are morons, idiots and assholes trying to run people off the road every day. That is part of society. But a controlled environment test of a system that actually LESSENS the drivers ability to control the vehicle in certain situation (not allowing a driver to use the throttle to control a situation, a computer deciding how much anti’lock is enough and ignoring driver inputs above that, etc) should not be sufficient to mandate this technology on all vehicles. You call them “tools”, I call them impediments to full vehicle control.
06/19, 3:36 AM
posted by:
D-Rock
I’d like to see this standard, aslong as you can disable it. I love DSC/ECS on my BMW’s in the snow.