The annual rainy season is coming. A few days ago, a Guangzhou cyclist shared his experiences in the WeChat group of Tuhu riders. Because of the slippery road in rainy days, I slipped when changing ramps on the elevated road. Fortunately, the car body only swayed slightly from side to side and did not cause any serious accidents.
after the "moment of shock", he lamented in the group that his car had ESP, and appealed to everyone in the group not to turn off this function, otherwise the consequences might be unimaginable. However, some car owners are not so lucky. You can take a look at the following picture:
In the picture, the white car suddenly skidded while driving on the highway, and finally lost control and crashed into the guardrail on the right side. If the owner of the video camera car didn't react quickly, it would be very likely to have a second collision accident. It was really thrilling. Xiaobian reminder: be careful when driving in rainy season, especially don't touch the ESP switch!
why does p>ESP become standard?
because it can "save lives"!
ESP（Electronic? Stability? Program) translated is the electronic stability system of car body, which was originally designed by Bosch, the world's leading auto parts manufacturer, and ESP belongs to Bosch's patent. You may see similar functions in other brands of cars, but the name is different. For example, there are ESC (American GM), VSC (Japanese Toyota), VDC (Japanese Subaru), DSC (German BMW) and so on.
ESP can mainly improve the safety and handling of vehicles, and it usually consists of control unit, steering sensor, wheel sensor, sideslip sensor, lateral acceleration sensor and so on. In fact, ESP is not a single electronic component, but a combination of a series of things, such as ABS (anti-lock wheel lock), EBD (braking force distribution), TSC (traction control), VDC (vehicle body dynamic stability control), HHC (ramp assist) and so on.
left: ESP on? Right: ESP is turned off
Usually, when the vehicle is about to get out of control during driving, the ESP system on the vehicle will detect the abnormality, and then it will start to work, so as to ensure the safety and passability of driving.
There are two common situations in which the vehicle is out of control: the first is understeer, and when turning, the vehicle does not follow the detour and deviates from the normal turning path; The second type is oversteer, which is just the opposite of understeer, that is, the angle of the vehicle is too large when turning, and the result is a tail flick, and in serious cases, a U-turn will occur.
relevant data in the industry have shown that ESP, as the standard configuration of automobiles, can effectively reduce 43% of fatal traffic accidents, including 34% of car accidents, 71% of car rollover accidents, and even 59% of SUV accidents. It can be seen that ESP is indeed an essential function to ensure driving safety.
under some special circumstances
remember to turn off the ESP in advance
Have you ever thought about the question, since the function of ESP is so important, why do engineers need to set an ESP switch on the car? Does this function still need to be turned off? It is reasonable to exist. In some cases, we really need to turn off this function in advance, such as the following situations:
① When the spare tire is temporarily replaced
Xiaobian has seen a case on a car tire before. After a car owner encountered a tire on the road, he temporarily changed to the spare tire in the trunk for emergency, and the ESP function was turned off by himself when the car was restarted. This is because the ESP sensor has detected an abnormal situation. Because the non-full-size spare tire is smaller than the original tire, if the vehicle is driving on the road, the speed of this spare tire will be faster than the other three tires.
Generally speaking, as long as you switch back to normal tires and restart the auto start, the ESP function will return to normal by switching on and off once. Of course, if your car is originally a full-size spare tire, it will naturally not trigger the ESP function to turn off.
② When particularly intense driving is required
When the vehicle needs to start by ejection or drift, the speed difference between the left and right wheels or the front and rear wheels will become very large. At this time, if the ESP function is turned on, it will also automatically determine that the vehicle is out of control, thus limiting the engine power output.
Therefore, some top-class cars or supercars will automatically turn off the ESP function when the owner turns on the ejection function when the ejection starts, just to ensure that enough torque is transmitted from the engine to the wheels. In addition, there are many car brands that focus on sports, and they often do track test drive activities, and also help test drive passengers turn off ESP when preparing for the test drive to experience the best performance.
③ When driving on special roads, especially uphill
When driving on muddy roads, especially when it is necessary to accelerate uphill rapidly, at this time, the adhesion of wheels is usually relatively low, and it is very easy to slip, which makes uphill difficult. At this time, you can temporarily turn off the ESP, and then turn it on after the successful uphill. Friends who often like to go out to go on road trip should keep in mind!
there is another situation, which is especially common in winter in the north. That is, when driving on snowy roads, some car owners will install anti-skid chains on their tires. At this time, the detection signals of ESP's wheel speed sensor and lateral acceleration sensor will be inaccurate, and everyone can also consider turning it off temporarily.
xiaobian finally reminds everyone that the ESP function has now become the standard for most family cars, and the default is that the vehicle is turned on when it is started. So, when ESP? When the OFF light lights up on the dashboard, it proves that you have forcibly turned off the ESP function at this time.
although xiaobian has given you some information about the situations that need to turn off the ESP, these scenes are not common, so when driving everyday, remember to keep the ESP on, don't turn it off casually, and keep the car within your controllable range at all times to protect the driving safety of yourself and others.
of course, when it comes to driving safety, besides paying attention to ESP function, the tire part can't be forgotten! No matter how good the ESP function is, it still needs excellent tires to bless it in the end. Choosing a suitable set of tires can fundamentally improve vehicle handling performance.
This article comes from the author of Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.