PERFORMANCE OF AN IMPROVED ABS AND EXPECTED SAFETY BENEFITS

ESC efficiency to reduce accident is now well proven. But ESC has a significant cost and to install it as a standard equipment on small cars will make them more expensive and then slow down the modernisation of the car in the street which is the most efficient way to improve safety. On the other hand ABS is already standard equipment on all cars in many countries. Then if an ABS can significantly improve the stability of the cars in real world accident cases, one can expect major safety benefits without this cost problem. As ABS can be efficient only when drivers brake, accident statistics obtained in France and studies of drivers ’ reactions are shown to establish in which cases the driver has an action on the brakes. Important cases like accident in a curve, in a straight line or at an intersection are addressed. It is shown that a significant accident reduction can be expected with an improved ABS. We made measurements of car behaviour during tests reproducing such accident situations. Results of these measurements are produced to compare the stability of a car equipped with the sensors of a state of the art ESC and the improved ABS. As a reference performance of a car fitted with a current ABS are also provided. The special algorithms of ABS used to obtain these improvements are introduced