Stability control celebrates its birthday

Technology that is claimed to have saved upwards of 15,000 lives in Europe alone is celebrating its 25th birthday this month.

Pioneered by Bosch and Daimler, electronic stability control (ESC) was first introduced in a large-scale production car in 1995, with the C140-series Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe – specifically the flagship V12-engined S 600.

Since then all mainstream manufacturers have gone on to adopt various proprietor versions of the technology, which in turn has sprouted myriad brand names – and no shortage of acronyms.

Whatever it’s called, stability control was made compulsory for all new passenger cars sold in the Australian market from late 2013. This move followed the Victorian state government unilaterally mandating stability control for passenger cars sold in the state from January 2011.

The federal government enacted equivalent legislation (ADR 31/02) in 2011 with a sunset clause allowing importers and distributors to continue selling existing models of cars without the safety feature through to November 2013.

ESC became compulsory for new light commercial vehicles – utes, vans and light trucks – sold in Australia from November 2017, but is yet to be mandated here for heavy trucks.

While autonomous emergency braking (AEB) is the latest major advance in automotive safety, ESC – which employs a yaw sensor to detect a loss of lateral stability – is widely regarded as important as seat belts and anti-lock braking systems (ABS) when it comes to saving lives.

Bosch accident researchers estimate that in the EU alone, ESP (Bosch’s stability control ‘brand’) has saved 15,000 lives since 1995 and prevented “just under half a million accidents involving personal injury”.

“The development of the electronic stability program was a milestone on the path to our ‘vision zero’ of no more road deaths,” says Bosch boss and ex-Mercedes exec, Harald Kroeger.

The company says ESC can prevent 80 per cent of skidding accidents and credits the failure of the original Mercedes-Benz A-Class in the ‘moose test’ as the catalyst for widespread adoption of the technology as standard equipment.

Bosch’s stats are somewhat moot in the Australian marketplace where stability control is mandated. But it’s telling that in many markets vehicles are still sold without stability control or with it as an option.

Our colleagues at Autologia in Mexico found out first-hand the effects of the lack of stability control on an SUV when they tested a Mexico-market Nissan Kicks. Much like the original A-Class, the compact Nissan SUV’s wayward dynamics were significantly tamed by the addition of the feature.

Bosch estimates that 82 per cent of all new vehicles are now equipped with stability control worldwide. In 2017, this figure was 64 per cent.

– with Bosch