As carmakers come up with new and more elaborate acronyms to describe the safety mechanisms of their cars, it can get a little confusing. Paddy Comynoffers a short guide to telling your ABS from your EBD and everything in-between
ABS (Anti-lock Braking System)
Now mandatory on all new cars sold in Europe, ABS brakes prevent the wheels from locking up and skidding by effectively pumping the brakes. This means that you can apply constant pressure on the brake pedal and steer away from the dangerous situation.
EBD (Electronic Brakeforce Distribution)
This is a braking technology that varies the amount of force that is applied to each of the vehicle's brakes, based on various conditions. This system usually works in conjunction with anti-lock braking systems and can apply more or less braking pressure to each wheel in order to maximise stopping power.
TCS (Traction Control System) aka ASR (Acceleration Slip Regulation)
Traction control, as it sounds, is designed to prevent the loss of traction. Traction is the grip that your car's tyres have on the road, which is needed to accelerate, turn or brake. Working in conjunction with ABS, traction control deals specifically with lateral (front-to-back) loss of friction during acceleration.
When sensors detect a wheel slip, within a fraction of a second the control unit adjusts throttle input and applies braking force to slow the wheels. The wheels are therefore prevented from spinning and the car maintains maximum traction.
ESP (Electronic Stability Programme) aka DSC (Dynamic Stability Control)
Stability control is the third of the magic trio of brake-related technology and all would agree, has the potential to save many more lives if it were made standard on all production cars. Stability control uses yaw (lean)sensing technology, so takes care of side-skidding scenarios.
While ABS and traction control work on the longitudinal (front-to-back) axis of the vehicle, stability control operates on the lateral (side-to-side) axis.
Among other components, stability control uses a yaw-rate sensor to sense how much a car is tilting during a turn and if too much lean is sensed, then appropriate braking force is applied.
What does Euro NCAP mean? I have seen car adverts with Euro NCAP ratings mentioned. What is Euro NCAP?
Euro NCAP was originally developed by the Transport Research Laboratory for the UK department of Transport. Subsequently, many other interested parties have joined. Euro NCAP provides motoring consumers with an independent assessment of the safety performance of some of the most popular cars sold in Europe.
It was established in 1997 and is backed by five European governments, the European Commission and motoring and consumer organisations in every EU country.
What tests does Euro NCAP perform?
On a wide variety of popular cars, Euro NCAP will perform a front impact test at 64km/h into an offset deformable barrier, a side impact test at 50km/h, a side impact pole test at 29km/h, and test with pedestrian head and leg forms at 40km/h.
A score for each car is based on how well the cars cope with these procedures based on data from crash test dummies.
What do the scores tell us?
When buying a new car, Euro NCAP advises that two ratings in particular (adult and pedestrian protection) are taken into consideration. There is also a child protection rating for young children travelling in a car.
For adult occupant protection a five-star performance (out of a possible five) in the tests is what is aimed for. Put quite simply, the higher the score in Euro NCAP, the better this car has performed in safety tests.
How do I find out how my existing car, or my potential purchase, has scored?
You can log on to www.euroncap.com and click on to the section marked "How safe is your car?" and in that section all of the cars that have been tested up to now are displayed in categories. Many new cars receive the full five-star adult occupant rating, so it is worth looking at the child protection rating, the pedestrian rating and reading the individual data sheets to get greater detail on each car.
On May 8th, 2007, Euro NCAP will be revealing its new visual identity and crucially, offering consumers greater flexibility in comparing the results of crash tests through its new and improved website.