Electronic Stability Program

The Electronic Stability Program (ESP) is the trade name of the Mercedes Benz version of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) or computer aided driving. Other car manufacturers have different names for it, Cadillac calls it StabiliTrak. It is a computer that takes over control of the vehicle when the vehicles path is not what the driver intended it to be. Computer aided driving is not new. ABS and Traction Control, which are forms of computer aided driving, have been around for a while and add a great deal to the safety of a vehicle. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration thinks enough of the device that it will require that all future passenger vehicles have ESC as standard equipment by 2012. Some car manufacturers, like Ford Motor Company, have announced they will have Electronic Stability Control standard on all consumer-version of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars and trucks by the end of 2009. It's no exaggeration to say that stability control is the biggest automotive safety advancement since ABS and airbags. The value of ESC is that it interprets information, in most cases, before the average driver or even the above average driver can sense the problem. Once the ESC computer reads the information it starts to set the car on the correct path before we can figure out what's going on.