3 Key Safety Systems Explained

Cars are safer than ever before now compared to years ago, and manufacturers are constantly pushing the envelope for what could be even safer.

We drive around in very well-built cars that are less likely to cause pedestrian deaths even, as regulations in various parts of the world account for even what happens outside of the car during an accident.

Often times these safety systems work without us knowing to keep us safe, so we thought we’d look at how some of these unseen technologies keep you in control of your vehicle.

The term “ABS” should come as no stranger to most of us.

It’s is one of the most commonly equipped safety systems on a car, without which you really ought not to buy the car.

As its name suggests, the system prevents lock.

What is lock?

In simple terms, when the friction from the brake system overcomes the fiction between the tyres and the road, the wheels of a car come to complete stop.

This is also known as the wheels locking up, because they don’t spin any more.

It happens typically when the car is going at speed and the brakes are applied suddenly and forcefully, causing the brakes to stop the wheel altogether.

However, the car is still carrying momentum due to the great forward speed it was going at, so what happens is that the car simply skids along on wheels that aren’t turning.

Without its wheels being in motion presents two major problems: the loss of directional control of the vehicle, as well as the loss of the ability to slow down.

This basically means that you lose control of the vehicle since you can’t steer or slow down.

ABS then, is what prevents this disaster from happening.

What ABS does is it releases the brakes quickly and intermittently to enable the wheels to continue spinning despite brake application, pulsing as quickly as 15 times per second.

This keeps you in control of your vehicle especially during hard braking or when braking in low grip conditions such as rain or slick roads.

Another commonly tossed around term, ESP refers to the software that keeps the car pointing in the right direction.

That is the simplest way to explain ESP.

The main reason for ESP is because cars are subject to the laws of physics, which can cause unintended motion due to things like sudden driver input (think sudden swerves) or loss of grip on the road surface.

All these could potentially cause the car to veer off its intended course, which could result in an accident.

Picture a scenario: you are going on your way at 80 km/h on the expressway where all is well. The next thing you know, some youth in a heavily modified Asian performance car swerves into your lane and cuts you off.

You are peeved, but otherwise unaffected. Two seconds later, he brakes hard. Your heart rate spikes as you brake hard to prevent yourself rom rear-ending him and you swerve quickly to the left to get out of the way. You then curse and swear, hold your palm to your horn and continue on, only to realise that there was a dead animal on the road.

Now don’t get caught up with the details of the story – it’s not important.

What we’re illustrating is that in that scenario, should your car not have been equipped with ESP, you might have spun your car and gone backwards into the side rail or another motorist.

In a situation like this, turning sharply while going at speed could potentially cause the car’s rear end to come around, because as you turn, the car is forced to rotate as it changes direction.

ESP works quickly here to cut power, slowing the pulling motion of the sudden turn, as well as activates the brakes briefly to counteract this rotation, keeping you straight and in control of the swerve.

All of this happens within a split second – you’d probably not notice that it took place, save for perhaps a quick flash of the yellow light on your dashboard, if you even had time to see that.

Interesting, many people often mix up traction control with ESP.

While they work together, they are actually serving different functions.

Traction control can be simply explained as wheel slip control, where the system constantly monitors whether there is grip and works to ensure that power is sent appropriately against the level of grip, or traction.

In some situations such as wet roads, the tyres may not have much grip due to the reduced friction on wet roads.

Modern cars tend to have more power and torque thanks to turbocharging, and if you’re not careful you could step a little too heavily on the gas and cause the engine to overpower the tyres.

When this happens, the wheels spin on the spot without moving the car forward and can lead to a sudden loss of momentum.

Traction control kicks in and ensures that the power is adequately reduced, so that just enough power is sent to the wheels to keep it moving on the road without spinning out.

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