THE IMPORTANCE OF ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL

Also known as ESC, this system is one of the strict requirements that the NHTSA has for new cars sold in the USA. (NHTSA stands for National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) The ESC was first studied by the NHTSA back in 2008, and was put as a requirement starting from September 1, 2011. From there, NHTSA recorded around 2200 lives being saved from the years of 2008-2010. Even though that the number 2200 is almost nothing compared to the ~34,000 traffic-related deaths per year, the number of lives saved is slowly but surely, increasing. The ESC system in a car helps the driver by applying the brakes on individual wheels (or cut the power off completely) when it senses the car sliding or spinning out of control. However, the system is not that appealing to enthusiasts who take their ESC-equipped cars onto the track. The system could interrupt unwillingly, which would be unappreciated by the driver. Since the system was created to help the driver in the risk of an accident, this can be seen as a success since it lessened the amount of traffic fatalities.