Across the board automotive safety experts believe that Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is one of the best safety inventions since the seatbelt. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) approximates that since 1975 when seatbelts were invented, they have saved at least 200K lives and have prevented countless injuries. The development of ESC may eventually surpass those statistics. Rollovers and crashes where the driver is out of control count for a high percentage of vehicle fatalities.
What is Electronic Stability Control? The technology of ESC (also known by various other names, Electronic Stability Program, Vehicle Stability Control, Dynamic Stability Control and Vehicle Stability Enhancement, among many others) prevents vehicles from going out of control or rolling over by an automatic braking of individual wheels. Excellent. A driver might maneuver the car in a way that is correct in a normal situation, but then when rounding a curve too quickly or traveling at too high a speed, the driver loses control, ESC senses the problem and corrects it automatically. Often without the driver even knowing what happened.
By 2012 the federal government has mandated that ESC come standard in all vehicles. Right now many models have it standard and many others have it available as an upgrade. In a San Jose Mercury News report from January 2009, Matt Nauman reports that people were choosing the Hyundai Sonata over the Toyota Camry because ESC came standard and only as an upgrade for the Camry.
Combined with anti-lock brakes and traction control, Electronic Stability Control begins to give vehicles that comprehensive, futuristic feel. Cars are now parallel parking themselves and there are myriad inventions that automate the driving experience.
The day when everything about vehicles are automated so traffic jams are eliminated, that will be the day of great innovation, oh and how about making a snackette as well?
{ 0 comments… add one now }