Electronic Stability Control Testing
International Centre for Automotive Technology
IMT – Manesar, Gurgaon, Haryana – 122050
NATRiP, Govt. of India
Scope Complex, Delhi -110003
Abstract
Background
Goals and Objective
Literature Survey
Car manufacturers and their suppliers perform many hundreds of tests when
developing the electronic stability control (ESC) systems for their vehicles. They try
to ensure that the system will work in every possible circumstance: different speeds
and road conditions, and different manoeuvres and driver response.
Euro NCAP does not have the resources to replicate all of the manufacturer’s
development tests to see how well a system performs. However, there is currently
no single test, or simple combination of tests, that can allow conclusions to be
drawn about the safety which an ESC system is likely to provide in real life.
Similarly, analyses of real-life accident cannot differentiate between the safety
offered by different types of systems; they can only tell that cars equipped with ESC
are involved in fewer accidents, and less serious ones, than cars without.
Euro NCAP and its members are continuing to work on possible test methods.
Ensuring repeatable, comparable results is of primary importance if we are to offer
consumers information on the relative safety offered by different systems. Until a
method is found to ensure that level of repeatability, Euro NCAP is rewarding the
fitment of ESC, rather than its technical performance.
Since 2008, Euro NCAP has been trying to promote broad fitment of ESC by all
vehicle manufacturers. Unfortunately, fitment varies greatly between different
European countries and between different vehicle categories. To drive greater levels
of fitment, Euro NCAP now gives three points to a car if ESC is fitted as standard
across the model range, or if it is an option on every variant and the manufacturer
also expects to sell at least 85 percent of cars with the system as standard
equipment. The minimum percentage will increase to 90 in 2010 and to 95 percent
in 2011. By 2012, Euro NCAP will assess and reward only equipment which is fitted
as standard across the whole of the model range.
Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is an in-vehicle technology aimed at improving
primary safety by assisting the driver in avoiding loss of control of the vehicle. The
aim of this study was to use available crash data from Australia and New Zealand to
evaluate the effectiveness of ESC systems in reducing crash risk and to establish
whether benefits estimated from overseas studies have translated to the Australian
and New Zealand environments.
A methodology was developed to identify ESC equipped vehicles from Australian
and New Zealand crashed vehicle fleets. This resulted in the identification of 7,699
crashed vehicles that were fitted with ESC. This sample comprised of 90 different
models, making this evaluation the first to include such a broad range of models in
its sample of ESC-fitted vehicles. The induced exposure methodology was used to
measure the effect of ESC on crashes on Australian and New Zealand roads.
Vehicles involved in rear end impacts were used as the measure of induced
exposure while Poisson regression was used to test whether the differences in the
observed and expected crash counts for ESC fitted vehicles were significant.
It was found that the fitment of ESC to vehicles in the Australian and New Zealand
fleet was associated with a statistically significant 32% reduction in the risk of
single vehicle crashes in which the driver was injured. It was also found that ESC
was more effective at preventing single vehicle crashes for 4WDs than for
passenger cars, with ESC reducing the risk of single vehicle crashes in which the
driver was injured by 68% for 4WDs compared with 27% for passenger cars. The
effect of ESC on multiple vehicle crashes in Australia and New Zealand was not
clear from this preliminary analysis. The long-term benefits of fitting ESC to all
vehicles in Australia were also investigated based on the estimated single vehicle
crash reductions.
http://www.monash.edu/muarc/reports/muarc271.html
