What is Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

Electronic stability control (ESC) is a safety feature that detects and prevents (or recovers from) skids. ESC can help keep the driver from losing control of the car in a panic swerve or when driving on slippery roads.
A government study showed that ESC reduced single-vehicle crashes by 34% for cars and 59% for SUVs. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that ESC reduces the risk of fatal single-vehicle wrecks by 56% and fatal multiple-vehicle crashes by 32%. Because of its proven effectiveness, the US Government has mandated that all new cars must be equipped with ESC by the 2012 model year.
How (ESC) Works : ESC uses sensors in the car (wheel speed sensors, steering wheel position sensors, yaw sensors, etc.) to determine which direction the driver wants the car to go, and compares that to which way the car is actually going. If the system senses that a skid is imminent or has already started -- in other words, that the car is not going in the direction the driver is telling it to go -- it can apply the brakes on individual wheels to bring the car back under control. Because the system can brake individual wheels, whereas the driver can only brake all four wheels at once, ESC can recover from skids that a human driver can't.

Different manufacturers use different names for their electronic stability control systems.
Electronic Stability Program (ESP)
Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA)
Vehicle Stability Control (VSC)
Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC)
Dynamic Stability Control (DSC)
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