Govt makes ESC manadatory from 2011
June 23, 2009 by David Twomey
The Australian Government has finally bitten the bullet on the life-saving Electronic Stability Control (ESC) technology, announcing that it will become part of the Australian Design Rules (ADR) from 2011.
Holden, whose Chairman and Managing Director, Mark Reuss, is also the current President of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industry (FCAI) has been quick to support the move.
In a statement Holden said it welcomed the Federal Government’s decision to introduce a new ADR making ESC, originally developed by Mercedes-Benz, mandatory on all new passenger cars and SUVs.
Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Anthony Albanese, announced today in Canberra the new regulation would come into effect from 2011.
Speaking at the event, Mr Reuss praised the Government’s decision to introduce a standardised national approach to vehicle safety rather than allowing a state-by-state roll out to occur.
“Mainstreaming ESC technology in passenger cars and SUVs will save lives – it is as simple as that,” Mr Reuss said.
“This new regulation supports what Holden is already committed to achieving – that every next generation Holden, including light commercial vehicles, will have ESC as standard, if not already standard.
“ESC greatly improves vehicle safety performance and is probably the most significant advance in vehicle safety since seatbelts were made compulsory in the early 1970s.
“ESC is all about avoiding crashes – fitting ESC as standard is absolutely the right thing to do for all motorists.”
Holden has equipped its entire range of locally built vehicles with the acclaimed safety technology as standard, including the Holden Ute.
ESC is widely acclaimed because it helps drivers avoid crashes where emergency action has been taken, rather than focusing on minimising harm if they do crash. International studies have suggested that ESC can prevent more than 30 per cent of single vehicle accidents.
ESC greatly improves vehicle safety performance in situations where the driver takes emergency action to avoid a collision. It does this by electronically correcting vehicle paths through individually applying brakes to each wheel and managing engine torque.
Print it: 
*****PRIMO!*****
Good news, but why not 2010, all cars should have this as standard just as they have doors and windows!So u can still come here Tata Nano! :-)
ONLY exception is if the vehicle is under $10k, and sold in number under say 30 a year.
Who REALLY need this are trucks/semi-trailers.
Air bags, TCS and other safety systems should also be fitted by law to ALL VEHICLES
Cheers
F-0
The idea of forcing ESC onto every driver really irritates me. I’m a highly skilled and experienced driver, with years of experience under my belt. I’d like to see manufacturers offer an option on some of their more sporty vehicles where ESC is removed, and instead the driver is afforded 4 individual brake and throttle pedals, one for each wheel. This would allow an expert driver (such as myself) to out-perform the typical ESC system by giving me the ability to control braking or throttle application to separate wheels, to correct a slide or other mishap. I really don’t see this as being any more difficult than operating a manual transmission, heel and toe braking, or simultaneously masturbating while posting comments on motoring enthusiast websites about my fantastic driving abilities.
I look forward to a response from the manufacturers.
Good idea FrugalOne, ESC on trucks and semi-trailers.
Overly Confident Enthusiast, some manufacturers do offer a button to turn off ESC. I know that Holden commodores do.
Wow OCE, you are talented! I can only do that AFTER ive clicked on to certain websites. You know, the ones with beautiful, exotic cars in all their naked glory.
As for the 2011 introduction, i’d say thats to give all manufacturers time to implement the changes they need to make.
Correct me if I’m wrong “Overly Confident Enthusiast” but ESC can be turned off on most recent sporty cars?
My problem with this comes from society’s popular belief that instead of learning to control ourselves and do things (like drive to the conditions and regulate our own behaviour accordingly) we are always looking for something else to do it for us.
Why are the politicians so scared to bring in tougher licencing laws to make people learn how to drive?? Europeans can do it and they drive a lot faster in far worse weather than we do!
Remember that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction! As for this one I can see (and have seen) people have the attitude that they have ESP so the car WILL not fall over…… Sorry but if you push to hard, drive to recklessly it will fail you will fall over with more catastrophic results… Just ask a certain motoring magazine, never had they rolled a car on the COTY until they decided to see how well ESP works..of course it was the cars fault!
I can’t believe that there are still some cave men out there that don’t like this technology……coz the knockers will never admitt if this technology ever saves their lives it will always be there incredibly large EGO that did it!!!
I am happy that all cars will have ESC…. even if its from 2011…. that gives manufacturers enough time to get their act together….. i.e. Honda and its Jazz , City, etc among some of the other manufacturers being slack and shortchanging customers….
Well as for some of the comments here …. i would have loved to hear what these people said when Airbags became the norm in cars! “oh I am soo good at driving…. why in the world would i need an airbag…. ” or perhaps even “my skull is hard enough to sustain a blow in the event of an accident”…
ESC enables drivers to prevent accidents to a certain extent, but there is no substitute for safe/sensible driving…
Manufacturers should make these safety options as standard instead of crappy rear spoilers… i say make the spoilers an option and include all the safety as standard….
ESC is the most dangerous addition you can make to a car.
NO RESEARCH has carried out a true comparison between two equal groups all who beleieve they are driving cars with ESC yet 50% have the ESC diabled.
It’s the equivalent of putting a blind driver in the drivers seat in an emergency. Some engineers and somputer programmers have the arrogance to think they actually know what a driver is trying to do EVEN though they have no information on the road ahead or the crash situation.
And all the demos and advertisments are fraudulent because they either do not show equivalent situations for ESC vs NON ESC or the vehicle manoeuvres are not real world – that is they show drivers doing things on skid pans that no responsible driver would ever consider
Further to my previous comments:
ESC on heavy vehicles with air actuated brakes will kill drivers and other roadusers – it’s an absolute no-no because it requires ABS and in the best possible situation ABS increases truck stopping distances by 10% even if only the primemover has ABS. On unsealed roads the stopping distances increase 30% or more and on sealed or undealed corrugations trucks will “never” stop.
As for the off button, all a good driver needs to do is forget to select off EVERY TIME THEY STOP THE ENGINE and they can be in trouble.
I expereinced this myself with a Jeep Cherokee Sport 3.7L. I had religiously switched the ESC off but forgot on one trip – and had the ESC try to drive me into an earth bank at the edge of the road even though I was not even travelling fast for the conditions!!!!!
In about 1994 I had some guy in his 60’s tell me he had a head-on in his XY falcon, spent a month in hospital, smashed his head on the big old solid metal steering wheel… and in the next breath was telling me that an airbag wouldnt have made a scrap of difference! well actually it would…you wouldnt have smashed your head on the steering wheel I replied. Sadly he must have also suffered some hearing impairment aswell. My comment fell on deaf ears. I suspect he would have rejected the concepts of ABS and ESP also.
ESC is great. I was travelling on the freeway 110km(wet Melbourne day) when a barrel fell of a truck. I only had 2 seconds to check which lane was clear and that the barrel was not heading there too before I swirved to avoid it. I could feel the ESC working to make sure i don’t hit the concrete barrier.
So long as it can also be switched off. I hate overly-intrusive systems.
Good move. IMHO, it should’ve been enforced yesterday. ESC reminds me of the humble seat belt which now became mandatory. I remember when it was first introduced by continental car manufacturers like MB and Volvo, there were plenty of negative talk of how it can strangle the occupant during an accident.
Does it include ABS too? I’m sure Holden won’t be happy…with the Barina and all!
This is a good move, finally something Krudd has done right. The safety of our new cars could be like Europe (eg resonably high).
Truck safety needs to be improved too. Some say airbags aren’t needed when hitting other vehicles, but what about trees/solid things!?
Jake02, yes it would include ABS.
ESC is just very fancy ABS.
The fact that John Lambert chooses to drive a Jeep Cherokee says it all really, and confirms that his comments are coming out an orifice other than his mouth.
Gee I thought Lexus invented ESC?
For the record, I believe in esp and abs, however it appears that some have missed my point. Train the drivers to drive not make the cars mask their mistakes!!!!!!!!
New drivers will become to dependant on the sytem and it will let them down at higher speeds than if the car didn’t have it. Also you get the older drivers who learnt without it amay well find them selves correct at the same time that the system takes over causing a fast acting over correction with poor results. (this is my understanding of the infamous incident from a lesser quality print media publication)
the system is only as good as the driver, so lets get back to basic and teach people to drive first, then give them the systems to make them better!
esc is a grate idear for new cars but if they make it have to be fited to older cars like the old clasic. then all they are going to do is distroy a lot of nice old clasic and make a lot of people that cart aford to by a new car with this end up losig there car or go in to det untill they end up loseing everthing. one day they see that safty device help save live only some of the times. most road acdients that i have been to the air bags were never actvated.
ESC is fine guys. The machine I purchased some 15 (Skoda) months ago has it. You can switch it off for work in slow slushy mud.
Jakes02, don’t be silly!………
“This new regulation supports what Holden is already committed to achieving – that every next generation Holden, including light commercial vehicles, will have ESC as standard, if not already standard.”
Frontman, the publication you refer to put many other makes and models of cars through that same test, and they managed to roll the 1 car that came from a manufacturer that has a reputation for having sub-par esc systems, even on their “luxury” brand.
The esc systems are only as good as the manufacturer calibrates them to be, for example Ford’s, Holden’s and Mazda’s systems are widely regarded to be some of the best in the business.
I had the FG down at the Ford Service centre tonight.
I just lead into a bit of chit chat asking if they had any known problems with them yet, and should there be something to look out for sort of stuff.
He did tell me since it was an XR to keep the tyre pressures right up to at leats 40 psi other wise tyres would be going out the door every 15,000k’s.
I then asked if I should be running the rears different.
He then nearly jumped over the counter telling me it is important to run them at the same pressures all round, other wise it would confuse the DSC (ESC).
He told that different pressures could bring on stability warning lights as the system would detect wheels rolling at different speeds.
He told of an extreme case where a Territory owner came in and pretty much abused him saying fix this POS because the warning lights kept coming on.
He then asked the customer to walk around the side where he pointed out he had a flat tyre.
He then asked the owner if he had noticed anything when he was driving around corners and round abouts etc to which the owner said no.
He then told the owner “Well you know the DSC is doing its job then”
Will be a sad day as bye bye kit cars if ESC is mandatory for all new registered cars. Most kit cars won’t be feasible if they need to offer this technology.
I am OK with making ESC mandatory. But they should also make ON-OFF switchable ESC mandatory too. It’s not switchable on Toyotas and some other cars.
Just in case the diameter of 1 tyre changes due to under/over inflation or fitment of snow chains, the car is still driveable when the ESC is temporarily switched off or if 1 of many ESC sensors is stuffed or clogged up with mud when one’s in the outback.
Glenn, no classics don’t have to be converted to ESC. I have a 69 Camaro and belong to 2 clubs. If a car is built prior to a safety device being standrd fit on that car, then you don’t have to upgrade. A good point is seatbelts. If your ride was built before seatbelts were fitted and/or became mandatory then it can be registered and driven without one. In some cases it is a bad idea to fit them. We have some vitage/classics in one club and it is all but impossible to fit belts safely. I have them in my car and would be reluctant to drive a car without them. But thats just me.
On the subject of kit cars, I think you will find that low build cars will be excempt, like they are from compulsory fitting of airbags. There are regulations that govern limited build cars here in Australia (I think it is less than 100 cars a year, but might be wrong on the exact number) that give a great deal of freedom as to what and whats not required for certification. We have a could of Lotus 7 types and a few “Cobra” types in the club and they were biult in the last 18 months and don’t have airbags. One does have ABS (not compulsory) that comes as part of a kit that can be purchased.
Some ppl are plain stupid; sorry to say that.
ESC has been researched thoroughly and has been proven to stabilize the car in emergency. No argument against that. Ceratinly, like seatbelt and airbags, ESC has side-effects and the benefit clearly outweighs the risk. Sure, if you are driving offroad through the mud, then turn off the ESC. But car accidents happen mostly on our common roads.
My only question is – whether ESC in all cars have same capability or they differ in their quality/reliability like brake, or clutch or any other equipment from cars to cars.
i dont really care as long as there’s a esc off button
The fact that the highly experienced editor of a prominent motoring magazine recently destroyed a new BMW M3 because he was stupid enough to turn the ESC off proves that most of you heroes don’t know what you’re talking about.
Jake02 just to correct you it is Mr Rudd and he is doing plenty right.
Good move as long as the ESC systems are properly calibrated and switchable, like some Traction Control systems.
I have driven some cars where I feel Traction Control actually impedes safe driving due to poor calibration and prefer to drive with the system off.
Confused, ESC systems in cars do differ. Some cut in quite early, others like Holden and Ford (Aus) give the driver time to react before cutting in. I prefer driving with the system on.
The other point I will make about some of the comments above is that you might be a very good driver, but all it takes is one second or two of inatention or driving while tired and if the system is off, you are an accident waiting to happen. The computer in the car never gets tired and never lacks concentration. You might be a great driver but what about the people around you? That teenager with a 2 week old license or the person next to you brushing their hair or eating cereal on the way to work. Making it mandatory is a great idea, but if you want to turn it off then by all means do so.
Why wait until 2011, every manafacturer already has the technology available.
The like of toyota, honda and even volvo offered ESC as a standard feature on their vechiles overseas for years before they where added to australain models.
This will stop dodgy car ripping off australians by deleting safety features off australian models.
Honda needs a kick in the head.
It is inexcusable for australains to be offered less safety features than Japanese or european buyers.
My concern about ESC and Traction Control devices is that over time car companies may begin to make crap handling cars that only drive well because of ESC etc, and if the ESC is turned off or it fails (especially with age) you could be left trying to steer a pig.
I am sure most manufacturers will do the right thing, but it would be very handy if publications like CA etc test all new cars with ESC on and off to make sure this tech is not used to mask crap handling refinement.
Comment bto Captain Mainwaring
You are obviously one of those people who is to say the least ill informed, and who makes assumptions without the facts. I was selling the Jeep Cherokee for a cousin who lives in remote part of Victoria – it was NOT my car.
And for the rest – there has been no study that has shown ESC makes cars safer – ABSOLUTELY NONE! All the studies have either compared apples with pears or not directly checked the impact of ESC at all.