What Evebybody Should Know about ESP
Skidding on a public road is a dangerous thing and is, as a rule, very unexpected. ESP has been created in order to protect your car from the possible consequences of such an accident
How it works
ESP (Electronic Stability Program) is the most frequently used names from a great number of abbreviations used to denote the same notion: the system of a car’s dynamic stabilization. Depending on the manufacturer the letters denoting the system can be quite diverse: ESC, VDC, VSC, DSC, DSTC but the substance is always the same – in dangerous situations the system helps you cope with the car that is running out of control.
The major goal of ESP is to control the transverse dynamics of the car and help the driver in critical situations – prevent the car from skidding and sideways sliding. It means to keep the cruise stability, the trajectory of movement and stabilize the car in maneuvers, especially at a high speed and on a bad road. Sometimes the system is referred to as “anti-skidding” or “the system of keeping the course-keeping ability.”
The prototype of ESP under the name “controlling device” was patented by Daimler-Benz in 1959, but the realization of the idea was enabled only in 1994. Since 1995 the system has been installed on Mercedes-Benz CL 600, and a little later it has become a basic feature of all S and SL class models.
Nowadays, the system is available, at least as an option, in just about every car. There is no direct relation to the class of the vehicle: you can find ESP even in cheap new VW Polo
Still, How it works?
The modern ESP is interconnected with ABS, anti-slipping systems and the engine control unit - it uses the components of the above mentioned systems. As a matter of fact, it is an integrated system that works in cooperation with other systems and provides a wide range of additional counter-accident applications. Structurally ESP consists of an electronic unit-controller, which analyzes the signals coming from various detectors: wheel rotation speed (the system uses the basic ABS detectors); steering-wheel position detector; braking system pressure detector.
But the key information comes from 2 special detectors: angular velocity and transverse acceleration (sometimes this very device is referred to as “G-sensor”). These two gadgets detect the emergence of side skidding of the vertical axis, determine its intensiveness, and give further instructions. On each moment ESP knows at what speed the car is moving, what is the angle of the steering-wheel turn, what is the engine speed and if there is skidding or not etc.
to be continued…
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