How about a VSC / ESP / Traction Control / Emergency Brake Assist Saved Me Topic?

embraer170

Incident / 'accident in the making' on the way into a local town this morning and I'm sure had I been driving a car without vehicle stability control and emergency brake assist I wouldn't be here happily telling the story.

Driving along national national secondary road at around 80km/h (and certainly wasn't doing much over since a car had overtaken me shortly before), car in the distance which I presumed was waiting to pull out from a minor road, suddenly find them pulling out accross my lane. Line of sight was ok and I couldn't have been difficult to see since I had my daylight running lights on (though they later claimed their view had been blocked by a sign which is possible).

For the first fraction of a second I was convinced I was crashing straight into their side, shoved on my brakes (and EBA kicked in), steered the car right (VSC kicked), felt I was going into a wall, steered the car back left finally bringing it to stop... and exchanged a few tearful words with the other car's occupants.

I'm pretty convinced that without VSC/EBA it wouldn't have finished so happily (and I think they would have taken the worst of it since I would have impacted the driver's side directly).

What are all these acronyms?

Each manufacturer has a different TLA for thier electronic do hickies.

Its ABS/varient of it right?

fletch

I think EBA stands for Emergency Brake Assist or something to that effect which applies more breaking pressure in the case of extreme braking? In some cases it activates the hazard lights also.

VSC (Vehicle Stability Control) = ESP, I think

embraer170

Sorry, yes.
VSC = Vehicle Stability Control which also seems to go under ESC:Electronic Stability Control / ESP:Electronic Stability Program
EBA = Emergency Break Assist (it applies emergency braking even when your foot is not fully pushed down on the brake pedal)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Stability_Control

peasant

I have no doubt that there are cases where these systems have prevented serious accidents ...

...on the other hand ...


...I'm driving 24 years without them and the last (and only serious) accident I had in '90 couldn't have been prevented by any of them as I simply didn't leave enough distance to the car in front.

They do cost a lot of money and add a lot of potential failures/repairs to a car though.

fletch

Only last week I was coming off the N7 outbound on to the Outer Ring Road. I was going around the roundabout(accelerating slightly) when the traction control light started flashing like mad. I wasn't quite sure why until I saw a trail of oil on the road and a Peugeot 207 about half a mile later with it's bonnet up. I'm not sure the traction control saved me but that's about the only time I can think of when it was actually useful.

L1011

Depending on wheter you claim the lights going on means its "saved" you, every time I take the N56 through Gweebarra in my dads car the dash goes like a christmas tree

Been a passenger in a fairly serious crash that required swerving while breaking to avoid a direct head on (With a double decker bus that had swerved itself), ABS likely kept the car more controllable there, had the wheels locked it would have been head on.

Elessar

Coming out of work one rainy day, entered a small roundabout, turning right when the back wheels of my BMW 320 coupe hit a pothole and I felt the back end slide out and almost lost control.

The ASC traction control (that controls traction on the back wheels) kicked in immediately, reduced power and braked the back wheels and within 2 or 3 seconds I was back driving normally on the road.

Without it I probably would have hit the kerb pretty hard.