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Whilst on the subject of safety and collision avoidance, I’m often asked what certain expressions mean when I mention them in car specs that I send out in my video car deal of the week. So to help out here are a few quick summaries:

 ABS: Anti Lock Braking system, this prevents the wheels from locking under heavy braking. The disc pads grip the disc, then release then grip again but very fast thus preventing a skid and allowing the driver to steer whilst braking without skidding. It sounds like a machine gun when it operates.

EBD or EBFD: Electronic Brakeforce Distribution, this system varies the amount of brake force applied to each brake taking into account, road conditions, speed, loading etc. It is coupled with ABS to prevent individual wheels from locking up. In some, more recent cars the EBD links in with ESP also to improve safety even more.

 TCS or ASR: Traction Control System or Anti-Slip Regulation, this is designed to prevent loss of traction or grip on the drive wheels, front wheel on front wheel drive cars and rear wheels on rear wheel drive cars (not sure why I mentioned that but it was in the description that I was reading and I thought why should I be the only one to be patronised). Very simply the system detects a potential skid or wheel spin as the amount of power passing to the drive wheels so the system cuts back the power to allow the wheels to grip. Different manufacturers use different means to achieve this but that’s what happens.

 Brake Assist or BAS: Brake assist System, it simply applies mor pressure to the brakes in the event of an emergency. When Daimler Benz developed this system in 1992 at Mercedes-Benz driving simulator they found that 90% of drivers applied not enough pressure to the brakes in an emergency. The system detects the speed of the car and the pressure being applied and increases the pressure if it senses an emergency. Some systems also detect the speed that the driver releases the accelerator pedal when assessing the extra pressure needed. Brake assists has been found to reduce stopping distances by up to 20%. Volvo have taken this one step further with their Collision Warning with Auto Brake (CWAB). This uses radar to detect a potential collision and pre-charges the brakes without applying them. When the driver applies the brakes full pressure is applied immediately. Mercedes have developed a similar system called Brake Assist Plus (BAS Plus).

 CBC: Cornering Brake Control, developed by BMW as an extension of ABS. Using the revolutions of the wheel CBC regulates the pressure in the individual brake cylinders so that wheels operate individually and brake optimally.

Predictive Emergency Braking Systems: this enables a faster reaction by networking ESP with the adaptive cruise control radar sensor and a camera. This provides full emergency braking. The system continually monitors the situation in front of the vehicle and triggers the appropriate collision avoidance or mitigation measures.

PCW: Predictive Collision Warning, warns the driver by optical or acoustic signals as well as by brake-jerk in case of an imminent front collision. Additionally the brakes are pre-charged for emergency braking and ensures the shortest stopping distance. Bosch predicts that PCW could avoid half of all severe injuries as a result of rear end crashes.

AEB: Automatic Emergency Braking includes PCW and EBA, but in situations where it detects inadequate driver reactions the system intervenes by automatically triggering partial braking to gain more reaction time. Automatic full emergency braking is applied when a collision is unavoidable to reduce the severity of injuries. By Graham Hill