Do you know ABS?

Now everyone who buys a car pays attention to whether it is equipped with ABS. Once upon a time, ABS was only the equipment on high-end cars, but now it has spread to economy cars. Not only that, according to relevant regulations in my country, by 2003, passenger cars with a total weight of more than 12 tons, heavy vehicles with a total weight of more than 16 tons, and 04 category trailers with a total weight of more than 10 tons must be equipped with ABS.

ABS common senseABS is the abbreviation of Antilock Breaking System in English, that is, "anti-lock braking (brake) system". Compared with the traditional braking (braking) system, it has significant advantages:

1. It can prevent the car from swerving, sideslip, and tail drift during emergency braking, thereby reducing crashes;

p> 2. It can still maintain a certain steering ability when braking, and the driver can avoid a rear-end collision with the car in front when it is properly handled;

3. On dry or slippery asphalt roads and icy roads The braking distance can be shortened effectively.

Old drivers generally know that when driving a car without ABS in the past, in order to avoid the passenger's forward rush caused by the inertial force of the car when braking, it is necessary to brake as slowly as possible. In special circumstances, when emergency braking is required, you can't step on the brake with one foot. You must first tap the brake pedal once or twice, and then step on it hard. Otherwise, the car will skid, flick, and even turn around. At this time, if there is a car in the adjacent lane, it is easy to cause a crash. However, when driving at high speed, people's habitual reaction is often too late to "click the brake" and will step on the foot to the end, and it is too late when you realize that something is wrong. And even if the steering wheel is turned at this time, the wheels are out of control, and the huge inertial force will still push the car forward in the forward direction, and the tragic accident is unavoidable.

The function of ABS is to implement "spot braking" during sudden braking. Use mechanical, electronic or pneumatic to control the braking action. When the braking is close to locking the wheel, the brake is released, and the wheel can still turn; Then release it immediately, and so on until the vehicle comes to a complete stop. This basically prevents the wheels and the ground from slipping. The wheels and the ground still retain a certain amount of adhesion, the vehicle does not slip, and the handling remains good.

Tips for use: step on the bottom with one foot ABS adopted mechanical control at the beginning, with a relatively simple structure. Later, with the development of electronic control, most of them switched to electronic control, and the performance was greatly improved , about 6 to 10 times per minute, and some more than ten times. Of course, some of them originally used air brakes. For the convenience of the system, pneumatic ABS is often used. The basic principle is the same.

The appearance of ABS and its use in automobiles have undoubtedly improved the safety performance of automobiles. But if you don't know it and use it correctly, the effect will be counterproductive.

This conclusion may sound shocking, but it is. An early NHTSA report found 24 percent fewer fatalities on wet roads in sedans with ABS than those without ABS, but when the ABS-equipped sedan drove off the road , the mortality rate increased by 28%. GM studied the types of accidents and road conditions that occurred in Texas and Missouri from 1992 to 1993 and found that collisions with ABS-equipped cars decreased by 3 percent, but rollovers increased by 44 percent.

Later studies by the American Automobile Manufacturers Association (AAMA) and the International Automobile Manufacturers Association (AIAM) showed that installing ABS can reduce accidents on slippery roads caused by rain, snow or ice. ABS can reduce injuries by 13% on normal roads and 28% on wet roads. But the study added that there was no significant difference in preventing fatalities with or without ABS.

So there are pros and cons with and without ABS. It seems that there is a considerable discrepancy between the data obtained from scientific experiments and a large number of actual statistics. What's the problem?

The original driving method with and without ABS is different. When operating a car with a traditional braking system, people are accustomed to "click the brake" once or twice during emergency braking, and then step on it to death. However, when the ABS braking system is installed, there is no need to "click the brake" first and then step to death. Since the characteristic of ABS is to continuously and automatically "spot the brakes" quickly, the wave force of the oil pressure is fed back to the brake pedal, so that the driver's foot has a sense, and sometimes there is even noise. At this time, the driver must tightly Step on it, if you mistakenly think that you need to release your foot, the brake will lose its effect, and the car will lose control.

Therefore, it is important to keep in mind during emergency braking that these are two different modes of operation that require changing the habit of traditional braking. When driving a car equipped with ABS, when encountering emergency braking, you must step on the foot to the end and not let go. It is normal to feel a rebound at this point. At the same time, unlike the traditional braking method, it is necessary to know that the steering wheel can still be steered at this time to avoid the current obstacle.

Another thing to remind you: a lot of practical experience shows that driving on muddy roads or snow outside the road, with ABS than without the brake effect is worse. This is because on mud-rock or snow-covered roads, after the wheels are locked, soil, stones, snow, etc. will be pushed in front of the wheels during the dragging process, and the accumulated mud-rocks and snowdrifts will inadvertently play a blocking role. However, the wheels of vehicles with ABS are still turning, throwing mud, snow, etc. to the rear, and there is no accumulation in the front, which does not act as a block. Therefore, when a car with ABS brakes in an emergency, try not to drive the car out of the road.

Adapting to ABS The coaching vehicles used in the current driving training schools are generally low-grade and rarely equipped with ABS devices. Although some coaches have decades of experience, they have never or rarely drove a car with ABS. They lack both practical experience and theoretical knowledge. The students they teach can be imagined. In China, the number of cars with ABS has only gradually increased in recent years, and there are few emergency brakes when driving on the roads in the city. There is a lack of practical exercises. Once an emergency occurs, it is inevitable to be at a loss. Improper operation can sometimes be a bad thing. Therefore, it is recommended that before driving a car with ABS, it is best to choose an open and slippery road for a test drive, and repeatedly perform emergency braking multiple times.

At the same time, remind the fashionable women of today, if you drive, then one, do not wear platform shoes, and two, it is best not to wear high heels, especially high heel sandals. You know, it takes about 60 kg of force to hit the ABS brakes, so it may be safer to wear hard-soled flat-heeled or half-heeled leather shoes.