Electronic stability control to be standard by 2012
Government would have safety feature on all light-passenger vehicles
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced plans to require electronic stability control systems to be phased in as standard equipment on all passenger vehicles under 10,000 pounds starting with the 2009 model year and to have the safety feature available on all such vehicles by the 2012 model year. Today, ESC is standard on 51 percent of 2007 passenger-vehicle models, and it is optional on 13 percent of others.
"Electronic stability control is the single most important advance in auto safety since the development of the seatbelt," said David Champion, Senior Director of Automotive Testing for Consumer Reports, published by Consumers Union. "We are pleased to see NHTSA recognizing the value of this system and hope that manufacturers will move rapidly to provide ESC on all the vehicles in their product lines, no matter what the cost."
NHTSA reports that the average cost for adding ESC is estimated to be $111 per vehicle on those that already include antilock brake systems. An expected benefit of this proposed rule is that ABS and traction control will become a standard feature across all segments, including low-cost models that traditionally have been difficult to purchase with ABS.
BENEFITS OF ESC
Electronic stability control helps a driver keep the vehicle in control and on its intended path during a turn, to avoid sliding or skidding. It's especially helpful in slippery conditions and accident-avoidance situations. In this way, ESC can help a driver avoid an accident altogether, reducing fatalities as well as injuries and injury severity. Combined with air bags, this technology makes today's cars even safer and should be sought by new-car buyers, as CR has recommended for years.
The government agency estimates that ESC will save between 5,300 and 9,600 lives annually and prevent between 168,000 and 238,000 injuries. Specifically, NHTSA forecasts that ESC has the potential to prevent between 4,200 and 5,500 deaths that occur each year as a result of rollover crashes. A June 2006 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety supports the government findings, predicting that ESC has the potential to save more than 10,000 lives per year.
"Since 2001, Consumer Reports has been urging carmakers and the government to make ESC standard on all SUVs," Champion said. "The benefits of ESC in keeping a vehicle in control and on its intended path have been evident from the emergency-handling tests that we perform on every tested vehicle."
ESC provides an even greater safety benefit for SUVs. That is because it can prevent a vehicle from getting into a situation where it could roll over, a particularly lethal type of crash seen more frequently with tall vehicles. According to the IIHS study, ESC reduces the risk of fatal single-vehicle SUV rollovers by 80 percent.
HOW IT WORKS
Electronic stability control uses a computer linked to a series of sensors--detecting wheel speed, steering angle, and sideways motion. If the car starts to drift, the stability-control system momentarily brakes one or more wheels and, depending on the system, reduces engine power to keep the car on course. ESC can't overcome the laws of physics, however, so drivers still need to be careful in turns, especially in slippery conditions.
