Do drivers know how to fully exploit ESP in emergencies?

With car manufacturers increasingly offering Electronic Stability Program’s across their range, leading fleet driver training company Bespoke Driver Training think that drivers need to be educated in how to exploit ESP in emergencies.

ESP is an active safety system that assists drivers to avoid crashing in various critical driving situations, such as during emergency stops in corners or during high speed emergency lane change manoeuvres, by targeted braking of individual wheels, thereby enhancing stability. ESP systems continually compare from a variety of sensors the vehicle’s behaviour against the driver’s wishes.

Bespoke’s experience of coaching thousands of drivers is that most of them are not aware of how to get the best out of ESP during a front-wheel skid (“understeer”) whilst turning. The old advice of straightening the steering (and removing the cause of the skid) until front wheel grip returns, before steering back into the turn, has some merit in vehicles that do not have ESP. However, with an ESP-equipped vehicle slipping into understeer, the driver should steer more positively into the curve. The system’s steering-angle sensor will then register the driver’s wishes from their steering input and, from the yaw-rate and lateral accelerator sensor, register that the car is not responding, and thus compute the state of understeer. ESP will then intervene positively, braking individual wheels to turn the car towards the driver’s intended line.

Mark Kendrick, Founder of Bespoke Driver Training, said: “ESP and ABS systems have made a great contribution to driving safety. However, there exists an obligation on manufacturers and employers to educate drivers in how to exploit the systems to the full in order to avoid crashing.”

Bosch, a manufacturer of ESP systems, claim that studies carried out by well-known vehicle manufacturers show that ESP systems can reduce the number of skidding accidents by up to 80%. Bespoke help businesses achieve these reductions in accidents through real-world training designed around their organisations’ needs.