Safe Speed Forums

Purpose
Ensure maximum brake pressure and apply rate in emergency stop situations.

Background
Some drivers do not make full use of the vehicle's braking capability in an emergency braking situation, maybe not applying the brake all the way to ABS and not applying it quick enough, leading to avoidable collisions or a higher impact speed. (on the reverse side, some drivers have been known to bend the bulkheads)

Basic Function
Monitors the throttle and brake pedal to identify emergency braking situations (rapid throttle lift off, quickly followed by rapid brake apply) and apply maximum pressure to stop the vehicle as quickly as possible.

Hardware
see ESP

Links
Other Sites
Rospa description

For further info & how to comment on this post please refer to active vehicle systems

From discussions with the people involved with making the original system as fitted to top-end Mercedes it was quite difficult to get the settings for the system correct.

Several accidents were caused by early EBA implementations, particularly in Germany where drivers on the autobahn would have to quickly respond to other drivers pulling out in front of them at high speed. This met the trigger criteria, and the car went ahead with the full emergency brake despite the driver only wanting to quickly scrub off the excess 50kmh or so.

Later refinements have cured the worst aspects of this, but it is likely that most good drivers would not appreciate the unpredictability of the braking rate that the early versions would give.

I managed to get a 307 we had for benchmarking to do it on a Mway slip road. Obviously I made sure the Mway & slip was clear for a looong looong way behind me.. but still ended up stationary half way up the slip road trying to work out how to get the hazard lights off!