Safe Speed Forums

Car buyers 'denied safety system'

A safety system which could prevent more than 400 deaths a year and 3,000 serious injuries is not being fitted on most new cars, it has emerged.

Electronic stability control (ESC) is available as standard in less than 40% of new British cars, Thatcham motor insurance research centre found.

The system works in situations where a driver may be losing control of a car.

The safety mechanism is fitted as standard in more than 90% of new cars in Sweden and 60% in Germany.

Thatcham urged manufacturers to fit the system - which costs £50 to manufacture - as standard on all new cars.

The system works through sensors which feed the nature of the emergency to a computer, which then intervenes by selectively braking individual wheels automatically.

This process helps the driver to control the vehicle.

Thatcham, a Berkshire-based firm, said just six out of 38 manufacturers fit ESC as standard to their entire range of UK vehicles.

Those companies are Mercedes, Audi, Volvo, Porsche, Lexus and Cadillac.

And five manufacturers - Chevrolet, Daihatsu, Lotus, Proton and Suzuki - do not have the safety mechanism at all, even as an optional extra.

Thatcham crash laboratory manager Matthew Avery described the current situation as "a shocking state of affairs".

He said: "British motorists, their passengers and other road users deserve the very best - do manufacturers think that their lives are less valuable?

"ESC doesn't just help during a crash like an airbag - it helps prevent the accident happening in the first place."

These systems are only an small step of development from abs?
the main difference must be that each wheel can be indivdually controled by the abs and a giroscope? the rest is software. Where is the great additional cost.

The SMMT yesterday responded to Thatcham’s statement by noting that no active safety system is currently included as part of Thatcham's insurance rating criteria, which means that “more and more new car buyers are benefiting from the technologies, but not cheaper insurance premiums”.

With Thatcham saying that international insurance figures point to a 15% reduction in damage costs where ESC is fitted, the SMMT called for Thatcham to direct its members to pass that saving onto customers by offering 15% off policies for cars with the system.

ESP can only get you out of trouble once you are in trouble - its the mid-engined car scenario. hugely stable until it goes, but once its gone its hard to recovery from

I actually thought of a proper inteligenct speed control system that could easily be applied.

Rather than integrating the sat nav to the speed limiter according to the speed limit. The car could monitor the telemetry (speed gear controls) addopted for a driver on the approach to a given bend and alert the driver to an unusual variance.

for example if I take on avg a 60deg bend at an avg speed of 50mph. and a 90deg bend at 30mph. the system could alert me if I was approaching a 90deg bend at a much higher speed. link it to the use of lights, windscreen wipers and temp gage, clock and the system could baseline the driver, road and conditions.

Over time it would build up a database of driver skill (i.e if I start regularly taking 60deg bends at 60mph, it would adjust the thresholds.

We'd then have a car that could warn you in advance that you may be on the limit.

OTOH I suppose we could learn to drive, would that be any help?

Sorry diy, I'm not getting at you, but I'm sceptical about some of this technology. It's very clever, but are we really applying it sensibly?

I'm worried about ESP.

1) I think the nutters will soon learn to rely on it, but at some point the real physics overcomes the electronic chassis cleverness and they crash at a higher speed.

2) I'm also worried about a 'skilled driver' who may have been benefitting from ESP without his knowledge in one particular vehicle, then drives a non-esp vehicle. At some point the handling gets outside his experience envelope and he's a gonna.

There is a bigger worry.

That car designers are relying on ESP instead of designing a car which handles safely in the first place.

There is a bigger worry.

That car designers are relying on ESP instead of designing a car which handles safely in the first place.

Does anyone know how ESP behaves once the grip thresholds have been exceeded and steering lock cannot be translated into cornering force?