First introduced in 1995 On the Mercedes S600 and the Toyota Crown Majesta 1995. They were supplied by Bosch who invented the system. in 1999 Mercedes committed to fitting it to every vehicle it made. VAG also started fitting on the vast majority of their cars. Inlucding the MK4 Golf featured in this video as they got them in the early 2000s. For awhile ESP was a premium safety feature that was almost exclusive to German cars as Bosch readily supplied German cars easily.
I took a right turn too hot one day because I wasn't paying attention to how fast I was going, the ESC slammed on the left front brake so hard the ABS triggered.
1:54 - "If, while driving, the brake is applied to the rear wheel on the right hand side, it creates moment about the vertical axis of the vehicle. The tractor describes a right hand curve." What a beautifully constructed sentence. You certainly wouldn't hear anything remotely as precise these days. If this were a modern TV clip, no doubt it would be something like: "The special brakes make the tractor turn."
I remember one time when I had fun in snow with the ESP disabled, then I press the button to enable it and go away from the spot. I then tried to handbrake turn again, what a surprise when the ESP kicked in on the left front wheel :D
This exact situation happened to me at 70mph on motorway in my beetle in sleet conditions.It saved my life AND car but did stall in the fast lane facing opposite direction in the end.
Thank you Anton Van Zanten ( the engineer at bosch ) for inventing this and many other electronic safety systems for cars. You have prevented thousands of tragedies.
For the life of me I just can't figure out why some decide to go against the ESC just because they think they have all the skills(or egos) they need to control their vehicles; however as demonstrated the car will probably need to give you three more brake pedals(one for each wheel) to control the vehicle the same way ESP can.
I prefer no ESC. My main vehicle in the winter is a 4x4 truck but I don't use the 4x4 unless I need it to get moving. So then I can really feel the road because if it's icy the back end "kicks" or "breaks" and I slow down. Then I drive past all the ESC vehicles that are in the ditch because the ESC got them going faster but then couldn't handle the icy corner because well they aren't magic. Everyone must remember that ESC or not you have 4 tires on the road and that is your maximum traction. ESC is like anti-lock brakes, for many drivers all they do is cause them to drive faster than they should due to overconfidence. It is interesting that one of the examples given in this video is passing a truck. Well, nobody is going to have problems with that on dry roads ESC or not. The ESC comes in when you are on slippery roads and probably shouldn't be passing anyway, because it will fail if the brake the computer applies cannot create the required moment around the weight of the car. Do you really want to get in front of a heavy truck who also can't stop and have that happen? ESC is like many of our technological marvels: wonderful in theory but not worth the money. It is worse than air bags. They sold us all on air bags, but what you really need to do is put on your seat belt and slow down. And learn to drive. The reason Farmer's gives a discount if you have ESC is that so many of us don't know how to drive. The days where the person operating the vehicle was a part of the vehicle are now long gone, and the vehicles themselves are being programmed to do a large part of the driving so any idiot can do it, even a 10 year old. The last rental I had wouldn't let me change lanes without signalling even if there was nobody else on the road to signal to. And I didn't have the car long enough to figure out how to turn that off. And I never did try and see what would happen if I signaled my way into the ditch, I think it would have allowed it so long as the signal was on. All this technology is like auto pilot on a plane. It's fine until something goes wrong and then you hope like hell the pilot knows what he is doing. All this technology, I believe, is making us worse and irresponsible drivers. We don't have to think about safe stopping distances because the anti-lock and radar following has it covered. We don't have to stay in our lane anymore because the car will do that for you. We don't have to know how to drive on slippery roads because of ESC. It's getting to the point you may as well grab a nap in the back seat and just hope for the best. And it's also hard to see how drunk driving laws will be relevant for long, heck "the car was driving itself officer. I was just grabbing a bit of a nap!" "Not my fault I hit that pole, the radar must have failed!"
I know the crap that was just said ever since I started watching the crash tests on 5th gear! but what about older models that don't have E.S.C. fitted into the automobile itself
Maybe just the Beetle has overall better stability and handling and being wider than the Golf? I'm sure it might be a useful technology but I doubt the difference it's so noticeable and definitely the Golf driver was exaggerating with the turnings.
It isn't about being a good or smart driver. That's like saying since you're a good driver you'll never get into an accident. There's always the other person, and you can't account for every situation. If you're saying you never need ABS and ESP because you're such a great driver, you just keep thinking that and see what eventually happens.
One of the most important safety features indeed. Many fatal car crashes are due to fishtailing and losing control on a highway with oncoming traffic that ESC/ESP/VSC can prevent.
Comparing apples and bananas isn't a fair comparison. ESC can be disabled in any ESC equipped vehicle. Redo the test with a vehicle that has ESC enabled and disabled.
people dont understand how braking work = crash. the car will apply esp faster than a human can? really? does this also apply to formula one racing drivers?
I bought a 2000 vw beetle 1.8t 4motion edition, v6 tsi engine, vw only made 400 of the 4motion editions and i love it. Drives on ice and snow like a tank! 6 speed manual tran with ESP,ABS, and of course all wheel drive. Never had to do an abrupt swerve like that but 4motion helps out a ton.
1.8t 4motion v6 ??????? 1.8t is a 4 inline engine. V6 is the VR6 and a 3.2 l engine no turbo. 4motion??? Rsi special edition is the one known but again 4motion and the VR6 3.2L engine and only 250 cars were ever built
ESP is very useful for most drivers driving front wheel drive car's. However, with my rear wheel drive Mercedes CLK, I often can't reach nor leave my home safely if the road is snow or ice covered, unless I deactivate ESP (As opposed to wy wifes Fiat, which works brill on any surface). If you are aware of- and used to oversteering, rwd cars react rather strange and unpredictable with ESP. E.g. it takes longer for them to turn into curves as if they where understeering. Once the ECU is done keeping you in a sraight line, it bites into the curve. This then sends you into a too narrow turning circle, because you are likely to have turned the wheel a bit too far by that time. Merc decided to make the ESP only semi deactivatable so i've altered the switch/wiring to cut the power for the ABS at the same.
+v8guggi I drive a 2007 Ford Focus 1.6 VCT-TI. ESP is slow to react. In my case i correct my steering input much faster than the ESP so the ESP does a correction over my correction resulting in a hilarious overcorection. It is so ridiculus that i have to turn it off when i drive in snow or heavy rain, defeating its purpose in the first place. It also nearly killed me 3 times. In my experience ESP can only help novice drivers who tent to freeze up, lock brakes and aplly full steering input with no correction as you see in US when they crash every winter like there is no tomorow.
ESP definitely works in this situation- HOWEVER, what if the obstacle was a wall or a truck? I find when ESP is activated, the car doesn't turn as quickly- it wants to keep going forward and turns more slowly out of the trajectory. I think the likelihood of hitting the object is actually much greater- but the odds of losing control after avoiding the obstacle are smaller.
+polaris911 I drive a 2007 Ford Focus 1.6 VCT-TI. ESP is slow to react. In my case i correct my steering input much faster than the ESP so the ESP does a correction over my correction resulting in a hilarious overcorection. It is so ridiculus that i have to turn it off when i drive in snow or heavy rain, defeating its purpose in the first place. It also nearly killed me 3 times. In my experience ESP can only help novice drivers who tent to freeze up, lock brakes and aplly full steering input with no correction as you see in US when they crash every winter like there is no tomorow.
Modern ESC helps cars a ton nowadays to turn. It slows down the vehicle and applies brakes accordingly so the car actually turns to the direction you want it to. I have plenty of experience about this during winter when i made a mistake in an F10 520d BMW xDrive going too fast into a corner during the night (i was in a big hurry, but i had no reason to drive that fast) I first braked hard and then lifted and tried to turn and somehow the car just made the turn thanks to the DSC slowing the car down enough while making the car actually turn and keep it stable. It's amazing what these systems can do, nowadays they even predict what's about to happen and stop it from happening by applying a brake in a way that the driver doesn't even notice. You do however notice this espeically on snow when you turn it off. Also you have to know how to drive with ESC on. The trick is simple, point the wheel to the direction you want the car to go, that's all you need to do in a situation when you have a car with ESC. Also no, you're not faster than the computer, you just don't notice it already taking action untill you are already late and overcorrecting in a new car. Sure systems that are 10 years old can be a little slow at reacting. Try it in a 2017 Focus for example and you'll be amazed.
