Anti-skid technology is a proven life-saver
If ESC (Electronic Stability Control) has been one of the selling advantages for your brand, it will be so no longer. Because it’s now standard equipment on all new light-duty vehicles sold in Canada.
On September 1, 2011, Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (CMVSS) 126 took effect, requiring that all vehicles for sale in Canada manufactured on or after that date, having a total mass of 4,536 kg (10,000 pounds) or less, must be equipped with ESC.
Essentially the same standard has been progressively phased in over the past three years in the United States, reaching 100-per cent implementation there at the same time.
You may know ESC by some other name, such as: AdvanceTrac; Dynamic Stability Control (DSC); Electronic Stability Program (ESP); StabiliTrak; Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA); Vehicle Stability Control (VSC); Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC); or something similar. They’re all the same in principle.
Effective in reducing fatalities
While you will no longer have to sell the advantages of ESC to your customers, you may be well advised to explain it to them. According to a study released by Transport Canada, 23 per cent of drivers of vehicles equipped with ESC “have never heard of it.”
It’s important that they understand it because it’s among the most effective safety technologies to be introduced since vehicle safety standards were first implemented more than 40 years ago.
A literature review on the subject reveals that the adoption of ESC has the potential to reduce fatalities from single-vehicle car crashes by 30-to-50 per cent and those involving SUVs by 50-to-70 per cent. Those aren’t just theoretical projections but statistical probabilities based on real-word experience.
In addition, fatalities due to rollover crashes may be reduced by 70-to-90 per cent, regardless of vehicle type.
Stated in different terms, Transport Canada estimates that fitting all passenger vehicles with ESC could result in about 225 fewer deaths and 755 fewer people seriously injured on Canadian roads annually, based on 2006 fatality and injury rates.
How it works
As its name implies, ESC is an electronic control system that helps keep a vehicle going on a stable path in conditions that might otherwise provoke a skid or a spin. In colloquial parlance, it is sometimes referred to as ‘skid control’.
Technically, it’s a further evolution of the technology introduced in the 1980s for Traction Control and ABS (AntiLock Brake System).
Individually, those systems sense and act to limit wheel-spin or lockup by applying or releasing the brakes at individual wheels and/or reducing engine power output. ESC does the same thing, but typically adds additional sensors to monitor steering input, and yaw angle and speed (the amount and rate at which the vehicle is turning).
If those sensors determine that the vehicle is turning more or less than the steering input is directing it to turn – as in a front-wheel-slide or rear-wheel-skid – ESC either reduces engine power or applies the appropriate individual brake(s), or both, to bring it back on course.
So, for example, if the front end of your vehicle should begin to slide out when negotiating a left-hand turn on a slippery road, ESC would sense that happening – probably before you do – and might apply light pressure to the left rear brake.
Doing so would cause the vehicle to pivot around that wheel, ever so slightly, and that action would tighten its turning circle and bring the vehicle back toward its steered path.
Or, if it is a front-wheel-drive vehicle, ESC might reduce the engine’s power output just a bit, reducing the driving force to the front wheels, thus allowing more of the tires’ traction to be devoted to cornering – again tightening its turning circle and bringing the vehicle back toward its steered path.
In the case of an imminent rear-wheel slide on the same left-hand turn, ESC might choose to lightly apply the brake at the left front wheel, thus helping to straighten the car’s direction, and/ or to reduce engine power in a rear-wheel-drive vehicle.
The choice of actions may vary depending on the circumstances. In some vehicles it may initiate a warning light or buzzer. In others, it may remain invisible to the driver.
ESC may be temporarily switched off in some vehicles, although not all. Doing so can be advantageous if you’re stuck in mud or snow, driving in soft sand or with a mini-spare. In addition, some high-performance vehicles offer one or more modes with raised thresholds of intervention.
In normal driving conditions, however, ESC is best left on all the time. It’s a proven lifesaver.
