Stability control: What do you think?

OK, folks: Threat, or menace?

Automotive News reports that suppliers of stability control systems got a
boost from an insurance industry study that concludes that the technology
could save 7,000 lives a year.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety compared fatality rates of
similar vehicles with and without the technology. It said the technology
cuts one-vehicle fatal crashes by 56 percent and all one-vehicle crashes by
41 percent.

Suppliers hope the data will encourage consumers to buy vehicles equipped
with stability control, which typically costs $500 or more.

More details at
http://www.iihs.org/news_releases/2004/pr102804.htm

 

Sounds like the same thing they once said about ABS. Look what they're saying
now...


http://www.hwysafety.org/safety_facts/qanda/antilock.htm#5


....might explain one reason why ABS is becoming more of a option these days
when once they were standard equipment.

 

Maybe these kind of things help when the car is new, but I worry about this
kind of sophisticated technology after a few years in the big bad world.

 

On good implementations, it is probably benign.

Must be the same guys who said ABS would also save thousands of lives,
it hasn't.

I tend to not believe much that comes out of IIHS. Simply because they are
biased towards the needs of the insurance industry. They are a non-profit,
but fully funded by the for profit insurance industry.

 

| In article <>, says...
| >OK, folks: Threat, or menace?
|
| On good implementations, it is probably benign.
|
| >Automotive News reports that suppliers of stability control systems
| >got a boost from an insurance industry study that concludes that
| >the technology could save 7,000 lives a year.
|
| Must be the same guys who said ABS would also save thousands of
| lives, it hasn't.

Correct...years of loss data proves it. But neither have DRLs...years of loss
data proves that too. But the IIHS "explains away" the data. Odd!

|
| >The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety compared fatality rates
| >of similar vehicles with and without the technology. It said the
| >technology cuts one-vehicle fatal crashes by 56 percent and all
| >one-vehicle crashes by 41 percent.
| >Suppliers hope the data will encourage consumers to buy vehicles
| >equipped with stability control, which typically costs $500 or more.

You bet they do!

| I tend to not believe much that comes out of IIHS. Simply because
| they are biased towards the needs of the insurance industry. They
| are a non-profit, but fully funded by the for profit insurance industry.

That would explain things quite nicely. You would think that they would want
to remain credible instead, wouldn't you?

 

DRL? What's that?
<snip>

 

DRL? What's that?
<snip>
--

 

|>| In article <>, says...
| >| >OK, folks: Threat, or menace?
|
| >| >| On good implementations, it is probably benign.
| >|
| >| >Automotive News reports that suppliers of stability control systems
| >| >got a boost from an insurance industry study that concludes that
| >| >the technology could save 7,000 lives a year.
| >|
| >| Must be the same guys who said ABS would also save thousands of
| >| lives, it hasn't.
|
| >Correct...years of loss data proves it. But neither have DRLs...
|
| DRL? What's that?

Daytime Running Lamps.