|
|
GM to make stability control standard on most SUVs |
|
|
GM to make stability control standard on most SUVs
by Alex Law / Auto123.com
|
Significant
numbers of lives should be saved over the coming years, thanks to a decision by
General Motors to make its electronic stability control (ESC) system standard on
its models that are most likely to roll over.
The announcement
from GM trumped the company's cross-Detroit rival, since Ford had earlier in
the day bragged about its own ESC system being better than anyone else's and promised
to make it available to other companies if they wanted to buy it.
Recent research
has shown that vehicles are less likely to roll over if they don't slide out of
control in the first place and hit a curb or a bump or slip into a ditch. ESC
helps to stop such slides by applying a single brake and/or cutting back on
engine power to suit the situation, delivering control that the driver cannot.
America's National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration recently reported that it saw a 67 percent decline in
single-passenger accidents when the technology was in use, and a more recent
study by the University
of Michigan said almost
half of SUV rollover cases involved skidding, which could have been helped by ESC.
GM North America
president Gary Cowger said the firm's mid-size SUVs will get ESC beginning in
2005, and that includes Buick Rainier, Chevrolet TrailBlazer and TrailBlazer
EXT, GMC Envoy, Envoy XL and Envoy XUV, Hummer H3, and Saab 9-7X.
Full-size SUVs
including Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban and Avalanche, and GMC Yukon and Yukon XL
will also get ESC next year.
Hummer H2 will
get stability control in 2006.
The Cadillac
Escalade, Escalade EXT and ESV, and the GMC Yukon Denali and Yukon XL Denali
already feature standard electronic stability control.
In 2003, made ESC
standard on full-size, extended vans (the 15-passenger GMC Savana and Chevrolet
Express); and added the feature to the 12-passenger Savana and Express vans earlier
in 2004.
This would mean
that ESC would be standard equipment on 1.3 million GM sport-utility vehicles
in 2005, with many thousands more to follow the next year.
''Except for the
growing use of seat belts,'' said Cowger, ''we have rarely seen a technology
that brings such a positive safety benefit to the driving public.''
In its
announcement, Ford said it will offer rollover prevention technology on 500,000
vehicles in 2005, and will lease the technology to other auto makers.
"This is a
significant commitment by the company to do this," said Sue Cischke, vice
president of environmental and safety engineering.
Ford is offering
ESC as standard equipment on the 2005 Explorer, Lincoln Navigator, Lincoln
Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer and Volvo XC90, and it's optional on the 2005 Ford
Expedition.
Ford will also
offer ESC on its 15-passenger vans starting in the 2006 model year.
Photo Credit : General Motors
|
Back to news
|
