Today there are new technologies that are designed to help control your vehicle when you cannot. We call them intelligent stability and handling systems. Among the newest automotive safety advancements, they are now available on more and more vehicles as either optional or standard equipment. Some names for intelligent stability and handling systems that you may recognize are:

· Active Handling
· AdvanceTrac™
· Dynamic Stability Control
· Electronic Stability Program or ESP
· StabiliTrac
· Traxxar™

What Intelligent Stability and Handling Systems Do

Intelligent stability and handling systems provide you with greater control of your vehicle when loss of control is imminent.

They help you avoid obstacles and prevent the skidding that can occur in all kinds of weather and on all kinds of roads; conditions in which even the best of drivers might struggle to keep their cars on the road.

These systems have sensors that detect the direction your vehicle is going and compare it to the direction you are steering the vehicle. When the system detects a discrepancy between your intended path and the direction the vehicle is actually traveling, the system will intervene to help bring the movement of the vehicle back in line with your intentions.

Intelligent stability and handling systems intervene before control is lost by automatically braking specific wheels. In short, these systems help you maintain control when control might otherwise - without such a system - be lost.

When the rear wheels of a vehicle lose traction, oversteer can occur. When the front wheels lose traction, it's called understeer. Either way, the driver can lose the ability to turn the car along the intended path.

When sensors in intelligent stability and handling systems detect oversteer is imminent, the outside front wheel brake is automatically applied to prevent loss of control.	Likewise, when the sensors detect understeer is about to occur, they automatically brake the inside rear wheel, helping the driver make the turn and continue forward in the right direction.