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| Consumer Reports Video |
| SAFETY ALERT | |
 | Electronic Stability Control |
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Last week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters and National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Nicole R. Nason made an announcement we've been waiting for since last November: a new rule will require electronic stability control to be a standard feature on all new passenger vehicles by the 2012 model year. The move follows last year's announcement that NHTSA had proposed the change, which the agency estimates will save between 5,300 and 9,600 lives annually and prevent between 168,000 and 238,000 injuries. We've long been proponents of ESC; when NHTSA first announced its plans, David Champion, Senior Director of Automotive Testing for Consumer Reports, called the feature "the single most important advance in auto safety since the development of the seatbelt."
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 technology 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.
Previously: Electronic stability control could be standard by 2012
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