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Ford plans on making stability control standard on all models
Ford Motor Company has announced that it will make electronic stability control a standard feature on all of its models by the end of 2009. Although SUVs and rollovers have taken the brunt of the criticism, other traction-related crashes have piqued the interest of federal regulators. As we reported earlier, some in Washington have proposed a timeline, by which all vehicles sold within the United States will be required to come standard with some form of a stability control system. Ford maintains that its own roll out of traction control equipped vehicles will be well ahead of the proposed federal regulations.
Ford has had a few lawsuits regarding rollovers over the course of the last few years, making the company a target for electronic stability control proponents. Electronic stability control would prevent nearly one in three accidents, according to a study done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
[Source: BusinessWeek]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Michael Karesh 11:40AM (9/13/2006)
And yet for 2007 none of Ford's cars save the discontinued LS are available with stability control. It's a major lapse. It used to be optional on the Focus. So they're going to go from nothing to everything is a couple of years?
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Limbo 11:42AM (9/13/2006)
I think that management of one button it very conveniently but Yes! Safety the main thing!
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Julius 12:28AM (9/14/2006)
The article should read, Electronic Stability Control could prevent one in three fatal roll-over accidents, not one in three accidents in general.
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G 11:56AM (9/13/2006)
It will be as welcome an addition as the industry-wide (almost) standardization of ABS, and the standardization of traction control systems in all BMWs back in the mid 90s. Good call Ford.
http://www.automobilesdeluxe.blogspot.com
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Richard Warren 12:15PM (9/13/2006)
Of course it will be supplied through Boeing, sorry just could not resist.
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cowboy bob 12:37PM (9/13/2006)
Julius at post #3, You are correct. Another example of knee-jerk reaction to incomplete information. Rollovers vs. running into a tree? I wonder how this will affect the performance segment who like to hang the rearend out every once in a while in their Mustangs? Don't give me the crap about a shut-off button either. There has been no "button" for anti-lock brakes which also has merits in many instances, but have dubious or even adverse effects in many other applications. There are many reports of accidents CAUSED by anti-lock systems. The question of the effect of malfunction of these systems has also been neatly ingnored. Now, all you know-it-alls who think they want every new technology possible installed in their autos jump right on. Wag your safety banners and tell everybody how we are just dumba*ses and could never have better judgement or incident management than the computers. It would seem that those of us who were driving cars when your mother was in diapers escaped with our lives when behind the wheel only by the grace of God himself. The fact we had to know about under/overstear, yaw, uneven traction materials, and even that dad's Country Squire wagon simply didn't handle the turns like a sports car is lost on this generation. Yea,yea,yea, tell me allllll about it. I am just a stupid stupid old man. Thank God we have twenty-somethings to tell me where my slippers are.
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ruggels 12:39PM (9/13/2006)
"It will be as welcome an addition as the industry-wide (almost) standardization of ABS, and the standardization of traction control systems in all BMWs back in the mid 90s. Good call Ford."
x2, about time ford got with the program.
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r.yo 12:57PM (9/13/2006)
Michael Karesh, it's a good thing Ford makes more than "cars". For '07, the Explorer, Expedition, Stretchpedition, Sport Trac, Econoline, Edge, and the applicable Lincoln/Mercury versions of each have available stability control. That's hardly "nothing."
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Zo 1:02PM (9/13/2006)
#6 -- You are an old man -- happy!
You can turn it off on a BMW or MB. Go test drive a car sometime the button is right in the center console.
And while I disagree with this system as well, but it is cheaper to have a computer do the driving than it is to change people's habits. Culture and Bad Habits are very hard to impossible to change.
What makes me laugh is the people who want these gadgets and safety up the wazoo and then complain that cars are too expensive, too complicated, too bloated, too heavy and you can no longer feel the road.
My prediction is that the rate of accident will not change because people will just driver faster and will easily overcome the limits of these systems. People barely maintain their cars today and these systems all depend on good working braking systems.
I am all for safety, but I rather have safer drivers vs computer nanny's
We live in an era where nobody takes responsibility for their own actions so we need the computer nanny's.
Get used to it -- its like swallowing frogs, after a few they get tasty.
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BigRocket 1:20PM (9/13/2006)
From Post #6: "There are many reports of accidents CAUSED by anti-lock systems. The question of the effect of malfunction of these systems has also been neatly ingnored."
Please cite your sources.
From Post #6: "It would seem that those of us who were driving cars when your mother was in diapers escaped with our lives when behind the wheel only by the grace of God himself."
Just like if I was to make the claim that senior drivers are more prone to accidents, I would cite the following source:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/8925.html
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Richard Warren 1:50PM (9/13/2006)
#10 You could start here:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=2006
What we know:
ABS INCREASES the length of the stop under most conditions.
Humans still panic and aim at the impending crash instead of steering to avoid (this is what ABS is very good with, braking and steering)
ABS can startle a driver who is not used to it to let off the brake and actually negate the whole ABS reason for being.
ABS has additional malfunctions (false warnings, real warnings etc:) than non ABS equipped vehicles.
While there are guesses that ABS has helped reduce accidents, there is actually very little definitive proof that they have. I don't consider "ABS saved my life" claims from someone who had a crash as definitive.
My preference on a lot of this additional gear is this, offer me an "option delete" or make it an option I can choose. It's not about cost, it's about choice and giving me a button to turn it off is not a choice, the equipment is still there.
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rj 9:02AM (10/10/2006)
http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/antilock.html
The federal studies of the effects of antilocks on passenger vehicle crashes found positive effects on wet roads and negative effects for run-off-road crashes. These results cancel each other. Leonard Evans, a researcher with General Motors, reported that antilock-equipped cars were less likely to rear-end other vehicles but more likely to have other vehicles rear-end them.
#10
The source you site says that older drivers are more likely to be killed in car accidents it does not say that they have a higher accident rate than other age groups.
"Per mile driven, the fatality rate for drivers 85 years and older is nine times higher than the rate for drivers 25 to 69 years old."
The 85 yr olds I know do not drive as much and are more fragile than their younger counterparts.
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Michael Karesh 2:14PM (9/13/2006)
#8: I did specifically say "cars" and not "vehicles" for a reason. What other manufacturer offers a full line of cars without stability control? You can buy Hyundais and Kias with it.
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K 3:04PM (9/13/2006)
Putting safety features on every car doesn't cost very much. But Ford tends to make everything an option so their lowest priced vehicles will have to cost more.
They should get it done in 2008 not 2009. Stability control isn't rocket science anymore. And they only have a few models to adapt anyway.
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cowboy bob 2:57PM (9/13/2006)
Richard Warren, you are my hero. Thank you. As far as you Big Rocket, I'll match my driving skills to yours anyday. I still test run a closed course car for fun once in a while when visiting some younger friends, and the best indicator of their respect is the fact that they ask me to do it. I'll bet pretty strongly you havn't gone down the gears into a hairpin from 160mph lately.
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naggs 3:33PM (9/13/2006)
good, now please put a switch on the dash that turns it off, all the way off.
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BigRocket 3:49PM (9/13/2006)
#11: The "Killer ABS" article was published in August 2006, yet it still referenced 2 NHTSA articles published back in 1994 and 1996. The use of data from 12 years ago seems outdated to me. But don't take my word for it. The author of the 1994 report had this to say: "The data comprise the initial years of exposure of the first groups of cars equipped with ABS; results could change as drivers gain more experience with the ABS in these cars, or for later cars with different ABS systems." Source: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/regrev/evaluate/808206.html
#12: According to the IIHS website: "A 1997 Institute study and a 2001 update reported no difference in the overall fatal crash involvement of cars with and without antilocks." If we accept this fact, that ABS neither increases nor decreases accidents, then it is the exact *opposite* of what #6 had claimed: "There are many reports of accidents CAUSED by anti-lock systems."
#6/#14: When you wrote, "There are many reports of accidents CAUSED by anti-lock systems", just where can we find these reports? The ability to win in a race does not compensate for your lack of substantive facts up to this point.
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Steve J 11:15PM (9/13/2006)
Given the recent news that the federal government is getting very close to making stability control mandatory on all vehicles in the next 4-5 years, it's hardly that big a step for Ford to be doing this.
As far as the discussions regarding the inclusion of such electronic nannies v. letting people drive their cars in such a way where things aren't needed: nice in theory, not so good in practice. How many drivers out there really know how to drive properly, know the proper techniques to not only get out of trouble but to avoid it in the first place, etc.? Yeah, a skilled driver can threshold brake as well as or better than ABS in most cases, but I'd venture to guess that the overwhelming majority of drivers have never even heard the phrase "threshold braking," let alone know how to do it.
The fact is, such technology will improve safety for the average driver, which will reduce insurance costs (which is the true driver behind most safety pushes, and is definitely the source for the push for stability control; the IIHS is behind this in a big way). For the considerable minority of drivers who can get by without such things, I am in favor of providing off switches. My Audi allows me to turn off my ESP. The one thing with off switches, though, would be to make them not-so-easy to turn off for the average driver, because they'll turn it off for no good reason in many cases. The dedicated, smart drivers wouldn't mind hitting a switch in the glovebox or somesuch to gain greater control of their vehicle. But it would be a bad idea to make it easy to do for the average driver.
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Alan 7:27PM (9/16/2006)
Kudos to Ford, although given that a lot of manufacturers (primarily European and luxury brands) make this standard in most, if not all of their cars, this isn't surprising.
While I agree that safety features aren't the end all-be all, adding them isn't a negative. Can anyone cite any stats that cars from BMW, MB, Audi, VW, Acura, Lexus, Volvo, or other brands where ESC is nearly ubiquitous have higher crash rates? Now that insurance industry pressure has nudged the auto manufacturers to make their cars perform better in both front and side impact crashes, active safety features, along with increased rear crash and rollover protection are about the only "frontiers" left.
As for ABS, the only surface where it consistently increases stopping distances is gravel. On most other surfaces, if it even activates (which isn't all the time), generally it's pretty comparable. Part of the issue with user error is that driver's ed hasn't been updated to take all the standard (or virtually standard) safety features into account.
Nevertheless, the difference with stability control is that, unlike ABS, it doesn't require much intervention from the driver. In fact, the natural reaction of the driver to hold back once hearing the ESC sound actually helps.
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Newsquoter 9:57AM (10/03/2006)
Malcolm Coles, Editor at Which.co.uk, says that stability control is a potentially life-saving technology that should be fitted as standard on all new cars:
http://www.newsquoter.com/ViewQuote.aspx?QuoteId=287
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