Abstract
Keywords - Active Safety, Driver Assistance Systems, Electronic Stability System,
Accident Analysis, Loss of Control Accidents
Abstract - The Electronic Stability Program ESP supports the driver during critical driving maneuvers. The system observes the dynamics of the vehicle. If a critical condition (e.g. oversteering) is detected, the vehicle is stabilized by means of selective brake and engine interventions. Without this system, these critical driving conditions often lead to loss of control accidents, which constitute the most severe accidents (43% of fatalities in Germany 2002). Since 1999, DaimlerChrysler AG has purchased anonymous samples of accident data from the Federal Statistical Office Germany. Each sample contains 50% of all accidents with a certain severity (fine and/or injury) from the respective last two accident years. The analysis of these accident data shows that the percentage of loss of control accidents of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars significantly decreased after the introduction of the Electronic Stability Program ESP. Hence the accident rate (accidents per vehicles) of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars is decreasing faster than the accident rate of passenger cars of other brands. As a result of the early and extensive introduction of ESP into the market by Mercedes-Benz beginning with the model year 1999 the benefit of ESP could be verified by the analysis of a representative sample of accident data.