Research into vehicle safety and sustainability

Electronic stability control

Read the full report on the effectiveness of electronic stability control in PDF (599 MB)

Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is an in-vehicle safety technology which helps drivers maintain control of the vehicle. Known by a raft of different names (including Electronic Stability Program, Active Handling System and Vehicle Dynamics Control) ESC is essentially an extension of the technology used in anti-lock braking and traction control systems. As such ESC effectively incorporates the functions of both these systems while adding others. ESC identifies loss of control of the vehicle when one or more wheel is moving faster or slower than it should, as calculated from the steering input and turning angle of the vehicle. This is rectified by applying braking to one or more wheels and reducing engine power where necessary. In this way ESC is able to correct oversteer or understeer, thus reducing loss of control crashes.

Monash University ESC study highlights

The Monash study is the first in Australia and New Zealand to investigate the real world performance of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) systems in reducing crash risk.

While overseas studies have established the effectiveness of ESC (the technology has been attributed to overall crash reductions of up to 20% and reductions in single vehicle crashes of up to 60% in Europe and the USA), it was not clear whether the benefits of ESC established in these studies would transfer to the unique road environments of Australia and New Zealand. This made a local evaluation important.

The Monash study analysed crash patterns of nearly 7,700 ESC equipped vehicles manufactured from 1997 to 2005 and crashed across Australia and New Zealand over the period 2001-2005. These were compared with crash patterns of around 203,000 vehicles without ESC which were manufactured and crashed over the same time periods as the ESC equipped sample.

The effects of ESC were induced by comparing the crash distributions of ESC and non-ESC equipped vehicles to a reference crash type which was assumed not to be influenced by ESC. The reference crash types used was rear end crashes. This methodology has been used in many other international studies of real world ESC effectiveness.

Analysis of the results showed ESC is highly effective in reducing the rates of single vehicle crashes in Australia and New Zealand. Even bigger reductions were estimated for single vehicle crashes involving a driver injury.

For all single vehicle crashes:

• 25% reduction for ESC equipped cars
• 51% reduction for ESC equipped 4WDs
• 28% reduction across all vehicle types

For single vehicle crashes involving a driver injury:

• 27% reduction for ESC equipped cars
• 68% reduction for ESC equipped 4WDs
• 32% reduction across all vehicle types

The study results show ESC is vital technology for reducing the rate of single vehicle crashes in Australia and New Zealand.

Page created: 14 November 2007