New Vehicle Safety Tech: What Is Electronic Stability Control?

Missouri automobile shoppers can save a lot of cash by purchasing a used vehicle. It seems that the older the vehicle is, the more money shoppers can save. However, are these savings worth it from a safety perspective?

Every year, automakers incorporate new, life-saving technology into the latest vehicles. As such, paying several thousand dollars more for a newer model automobile could represent an investment that prevents accidents and injuries. It could even save your life.

There have been leaps and bounds in anti-lock braking systems, electronic stability control systems (ESC), and many more car safety advancements.

ESC is one of these new technologies that has provided drivers with incredible leaps in safety on the road, preventing oversteering in icy, wet, or otherwise adverse conditions as well as when a driver has become too aggressive. Oversteering is when your vehicle’s rear wheels are causing the rear of the car to swing out and around to the front, think fish-tailing or even spinning out and doing a 360. Many single-vehicle crashes can be prevented with these safety features.

ESC: Technology You Might Want To Have In Your Car

“Electronic stability control” is one of the newest technologies that vehicle shoppers should look for. If you can afford a car with ESC, safety experts would recommend that you make the investment.

This technology will help you stay in control of your vehicle when making an extreme maneuver. Many accidents happen after the driver tries to avoid an accident, overcorrects, and loses control. Vehicles often skid off the road, flip over, hit trees, drive into oncoming traffic or suffer other catastrophic results in these situations.

Slippery roads are perfect conditions for oversteering and have been the cause of many motor vehicle accidents. Additional systems can all work in concert with the vehicle’s ESC system, such as:

• Traction control system (TCS)
• Anti-lock brakes (ABS)
• Vehicle stability control (VSC)
• Dynamic stability Control (DSC)
• Electronic Stability Program (ESP)

All of these passenger vehicle safety systems allow for more precise control over what the individual wheels are doing, maintaining wheel speed and direction, which helps to ensure when you hit the brake pedal that, there is a decrease in speed. This can be done by modulating the brakes or even cutting engine power. It can aim to control the yaw and pitch of the vehicle, attempting to maintain the correct vertical axis

Controls for these systems are found in the dash, steering wheel, or other places in the vehicle’s cabin.

Imagine you’re driving at 80 mph on the interstate, and a piece of debris falls from a truck in front of you. You’ll try to swerve out of the way or forcefully stomp on your brake pedal to avoid the collision. Traveling at such a high rate of speed, the centripetal forces could cause you to lose control of your car and start skidding, but ESC uses advanced computer systems to apply different amounts of the brake pedal to different individual wheels, preventing oversteer and keep the rear wheels in the correct path. Speed sensors can tell the safety systems of the car if a wheel is spinning faster than the other, which the system can then cut engine power, apply additional braking, or other ways of controlling the front wheels and rear wheels, steering angle, understeering, wheel spin and helping to keep the car on the road. This will help your car maintain traction and direct motion.

Many, if not all, automotive manufacturers offer some form of safety technology in their vehicles in today’s world. However, some were more early adopters of this new vehicle safety technology. Some of those are:

• BMW
• Honda
• Kia
• Mazda
• Audi
• Chrysler
• Nissan
• Lamborghini
• Subaru
• Toyota
• And many other new car manufacturers

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, in conjunction with the NHTSA, has mandated crash test standards for rollover, front, side, and rear impacts, and other situations that cause the loss of control of a vehicle.

New Safety Technology Is Saving Lives And Preventing Litigation

It’s reassuring to know that if someone causes you to get hurt due to negligence, recklessness, or unlawful behavior you can pursue a personal injury claim for financial restitution and justice. However, ESC and other safety features in cars are helping drivers avoid accidents no matter who is at fault. Maybe one day, if technology gets advanced enough, personal injury claims will be obsolete, but for now, such a future fantasy is beyond our current level of technological capacity.

If you or a loved one have suffered an automotive accident, please call the Kansas City car accident lawyers at Townsend Law, LLC. Our law firm has been fighting for our clients for years and has the right mix of knowledge and experience to provide sound legal advice on your case.

We offer a free case evaluation to make it easy to get started, allowing you to concentrate on healing while we fight for your financial needs.