I’ve had this bit of video for some years. It was part of a presentation on Active Vehicle Controls, and following on from Oliver’s experiences with “Distronic” and “Lane Assist” in his tale of the Afghan trip HERE, it serves to further demonstrate how the ‘Technoligical’ side of the Industry is progressing, and some pretty awesome landscape shots.
It’s a big file. No it’s a massive file. Nearly 28 mb and, even with Broadband, will take in the region of 20 minutes to download.
I apologise to anyone on ‘dial-up’ but, unless your willing to set up a ‘download’ and then go tramping for a week, then forget it.
It is best viewed in Windows Media Player, full screen, with the sound Full On.
For further details of the nature of the controls, visit the website for Knorr-Bremse.
It is probably better to ‘Right Click’ and 'Save Target As…"
Wheel movements in the first evade were little more than unnecessary large. When comparing evading box with and without ESP I noticed that without ESP driver deliberately left huge gap to the box whereas with ESP box almost hit trailer tyre. Maybe little “unfair” comparison
I do believe that these fancy electronic gadgets will eventually come required but I still have some suspicious over them. Just like traction control doesn’t match for differential lock even some people think it will. I’m quite sure that in conditions ESP is needed it can diminish drivers “feel” of the road. At such circumstances electronics keep vehicle on the road and driver doesn’t realise how little grip he really has. Just like what happened after these came into cars. It’s very easy to compensate lack of driving skill with electronics and this is one of my biggest fears that ESP may do amongst truck drivers.
I don’t say that these new equipments are bad thing and most likely they are big help in sudden situations (like in such what I and Spardo had little debate before christmas).
I am persomaly very wary of the electronics why because a certain car &
lorry manufactur did a test on the television and it was proven that their system is not foolproof what do you do inthe middle of say Tukey or iran
when these systems are up the creek, when they went down the silk road
the vehicles had mechanics etc with them sorry not for me.
I guess with things like ESP, they’re a great aid to a good driver, but they dont make a good driver.
They can make a poor chassis, decent though. The Sprinter is a good example. The non ESP ones are terrible on slippy stuff, throttle is too sensitive, ESP ones are fine.
Traction control isnt meant as a replacement to diff lock, hence most makers supply diff lock as an option. The Actros comes with both.
ABS is great for someone who can drive, but people who cant drive use the effectivness of ABS as an excuse to brake later.
Like anything though, they work well and dont go wrong that often, but ‘if’ they do go wrong…
I’m sure it was in a magazine where they tested a Merc Sprinter round a track, one lap the ESP was turned off, another it was activated.
On the lap it was activated the lap time was slower because Merc had programmed it to slap the drivers hand by reducing the engine power for several seconds if he was trying to exceed the vans handling limits causing the ESP to work. PC or what.
you cant actually ‘turn off’ the ESP on the sprinter, you can diable it, but when you reach 40mph it comes back on again.
Cant see that you would go ‘much’ quicker without it. Most of the time the rear wheels wil be lifting off. Not really meant so you can race the thing though is it!
Only -3C 
