It was only a matter of time before the cars we drive had computers that help us stay out of trouble, and I must admit for most drivers these computers could not come quick enough. Computer aided driving is not new. ABS and Traction Control have been around for a while and add a great deal to the safety of a vehicle. As we have mentioned in past newsletters no executive/security vehicle should be without them. We have a new device that we add to the must have list for vehicles. It is called Electronic Stability Control (ESC).
The Electronic Stability Control uses the ABS and Traction Control computers to monitor what the car is doing, after you tell it what to do. By measuring throttle position, steering wheel angle and lateral acceleration, the computer compares the intended path of the vehicle to the path the car is actually taking. If it's not doing what you wanted it to do, or if what you are doing is contrary to good sense and the laws of physics, the ESC computer takes over. When ESC decides to handle the driving chores it applies one of the front brakes, or in some systems one of the front and/or rear brakes, to straighten the car and put it back on the path you wanted it to go.
For those of us who have lost control of a car, we know that it's that first twitch of the car that tells us that we are about to have an exciting experience. That twitch is information the car is sending to us. For some, interpreting this information is second nature, and for others it's like trying to understand Swahili. That sinking feeling we get in our stomach is the car telling us that it's not going where we want it to go, but it is going in a path that it wants to go. The value of ESC is that it interprets the information, in most cases, before the average driver or even the above average driver can sense the problem. Once the ESC computer reads the information it starts to set the car on the correct path before we can figure out what's going on.
As much as I don't want to admit this, in an "Oh my God" emergency the computer can control the car better than I can.
If you go to the IIHS site there is a video demonstrating ESC
http://www.iihs.org/news/2006/iihs_news_061306.pdf
You can find what cars have ESC on this site
http://www.aiadalists.org/newsroom/newsDetails.aspx?id=57205
