ABS on Cars: Good or Bad Thing?

A couple of quotes from the article that probably sum up why ABS may not be reducing accidents.

"The taxi study proved that drivers tend to take greater risks in cars equipped with ABS"
"Other research revealed that many drivers don’t use ABS properly; they pump the pedal as they would regular brakes."

Until those variables are factored out, I don't think we can call ABS dangerous.

I had heard that ABS has lead to shorter following distances in practice years ago. Which negates the advantage it could have in stopping.
ABS doesn't improve braking on dry pavement, but people apply magic thinking to safety systems. They think they are safer, and take more risks. This can also happen with these new driver aids, and we are seeing it in these publicized Tesla accidents.

ABS could also lead to people taking longer to replace bad tires, as it compensates for poor traction.

The article didn't mention it, but the excessive swerving and roll overs, may have resulted in the car plowing into something without ABS.

I would only consider not having or disabling ABS on a true off road truck. On sand and gravel beds, the ABS pumping could lead to the substrate moving and acting like ball bearings under the wheels. Sand and gravel with depth is different than sand or gravel on top of pavement.

 

For us ABS in an invaluable safety tool on a car. Now I am teaching one of the teenagers to drive, it is comforting to tell them just to hit the brakes and not worry about pumping them or any other special manipulation.

On of the greatest advantages of ABS is in hazardous (wet or icy) situations you are able to slam on the brakes if necessary and are still able to steer through the situation as the system automatically pumps the brakes for you. Of course the best option is to avoid the situation but not always possible if someone swings into your lane and you have to do a panic stop.

 

“If we all constantly drive as if we were strapped to the front of the car like Aztec sacrifices so we’d be the first thing hit, there would be a helluva lot less accidents.” -John Muir, 1969

 

i read most of their 'flaws' as "See, if you don't plow right into what your wish to avoid, you keep moving. Shocking!"
The argument that ABS is dangerous because acting like an idiot does not kill you outright, leaving you still on the road to endanger others, seems similar to social Darwinism.

But looking at the percentage of times you tipped over because you did not hit your victim is not 'real' statistics.

 

How about just having a Prime front "bumper" lol.

 

The type of driving arrangement that is mentioned in the quote might even give drunk drivers pause before driving drunk.

 

all 4 wheels locked up can stop faster than ABS in certain circumstances , especially as the ABS system starts to age.

I had to disable ABS on a 1993 Suburban and on a 1998 Buick because it was increasingly inop in the case that one tire hit a patch of ice all braking activity stopped.

This issue didn’t start until the vehicles aged but the abs systems poor performance became a safety issue in of itself while the brakes were still fine

 

I knew a coroner in my beloved home state of Indiana that said that seat belts were actually more dangerous than non-belted driving, and he used the fact that he saw a lot more accident victims as an argument-ender for those that tried to call him out.
Fortunately or unfortunately, he was never confronted by the survivors of any victim that his "expertise" swayed against this now-mandated "technology."
There have also been people who would speculate about how cars without air bags are "safer" - often (mis)using "science" and/or statistics to "prove" their point.
Riding motorcycles helmet-free is often cited as being "safer" with zany claims about reduced neck injuries and reduced hearing impairment.

Here's the thing.
The human animal isn't really great at long term risk assessment, otherwise smoking (and now vaping) would not occur and nobody would have credit cards, and we'd all have bulked up retirement accounts, and immunizations would be mandated.
In a world where Darwinism imposes a societal cost I have to press the pause button on my libertarian leanings and say that some things simply must be mandated by dot.gov.

Anit-lock brakes are fairly high up on that list.

 

Make no mistake, seat belts ARE dangerous. My wife was hit head on, and the seat belt broke her sternum, resting the broken jagged edge of the bone against her heart. The seat belt ALMOST killed her.

On the other hand, had she NOT been wearing the seat belt, she would have gone through the windshield, and the result would have been much much worse.

Wear the unsafe seat belts. Every single time.

 

Only if they are fully functional, many older cars the ABS system is worn,

no ABS is better than worn out / failing abs


Similar to an air bag that throws shards in your face.

 

On many older cars the brakes are worn too.

Some states mandate inspections for cars that are not properly maintained and are not safe to be driven on the highways, and in other states ambulance chasers take up the slack.

The world isn't binary, its analog.
There are situations where some may feel that driving a non-perfectly maintained vehicle is "safe enough" and indeed my 06 Envoy with near lunar mileage is probably not as "statistically" safe as a 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class for me or my fellow drivers on the highway.

However (COMMA!) If I'm sitting on a jury where a child got squished by a car with a disconnected ABS, THAT lawyer is not going to have to work very hard to convince me that the driver was negligent.

...juuuust sayin.

 

It would be interesting to collect some stories like that for somebody with adequate facilities to determine what was going on.

 

That's an argument for mandatory and thorough safety inspects, with failing cars removed from the road until repaired. Not one for ABS being unsafe.

 

Brakes were fully functional and maintained with a large $1500 part failed/worn on a $500 vehicle.
It also was questionable if replacing that part in if itself would fix the issue since electronics were fried in the dash (common issue on older suburbans)

Would have been throwing expensive rare parts at it with the potential to fry them as well.

I figure a more modern vehicle with disabled abs can’t be more unsafe than one that never came with it

(considering I am moving back in time to older rather than newer vehicles to try and avoid high registration and insurance, one vehicle I plan on pulling out has leaf springs and all wheel drum brakes, which is much safer than discs with disabled abs right?)

 

My point was that a broken system can't be used as evidence that the technology is unsafe.

I understand the ABS fuse needs to be pulled when the spare wheel is put on a Subaru. So disabling it is reasonable at times, but leaving it so does expose you to liability if something bad happens. If the warning lights were on, it wouldn't pass safety inspection here.

 

I don't believe this is the case. Our 2010 Subaru has this warning in the manual - the temporary spare is the same rolling size as the installed factory tires, for the reason indicated, and won't affect the ABS system.

"If you use a temporary spare tire to replace a flat tire, be sure to use the original temporary spare tire stored in the vehicle. Using other sizes may result in severe mechanical damage to the drive train of your vehicle."​

There is a warning that the TPMS light will illuminate when using the spare, as the spare is not fitted with a TPMS sensor.

 

If you lay into the brakes hard enough they WILL lock up for a panic stop...even big ole airplanes have a provision. When it comes to wet, snow or ice...they only keep you from going straight into panic. If you're already to close or the situation is just unavoidable...that's when the seatbelts pay for themselves. People need to have/use driving skills and not depend on "auto-everything" is done for you.

 

I think you may be thinking of the AWD fuse as used in the 4EAT transmission in 1988-2009 Leone/Legacy family cars. The
owner’s manuals for those instructed the user to mount the temporary spare only on the rear axle- meaning you have to do two swaps if a front tire goes flat. This is to preserve braking traction geometry.

However, the temporary spare was not the same circumference as the regular tires, creating an imbalance in the AWD system. Left alone, this would burn the MPT clutch.

You could add a fuse to a specific socket in the underhood electrical bay to disable the solenoid controlling the hydraulic fluid flow to the MPT clutch, effectively converting the car to FWD.

The same transmission (with the same spare tire/fuse regime) was also used in Foresters and Imprezas but I don’t know them as well so I couldn’t say which years applied- it’s essentially all Subarus with 4-speed automatics and without the variable torque distribution system that appeared on late-model 4EATs.

There are many old Subies rolling around in permanent FWD mode after somebody fried the MPT clutchpack and didn’t care to repair it.

(note that this would not apply to @JB in NE’s 2010 Outback. That would have either the CVT automatic or a 6-speed manual. There is no provision to lock out the rear axle power in either of these.)

On the other hand, pulling the ABS fuse is a time-honored practice in older Subarus which improves your odds for maintaining control while doing a steep technical hill descent.

 

This warning from a 2010 Outback manual regarding ABS. I grew up racing cars that had no ABS, so you quickly learned to modulate the brake pedal. One wheel skidding is not a bad thing, unless you are concerned with flat spotting a race tire. Road tires can take quite a bit of lockup with no ill effects. It would be nice to have an ABS defeat switch.

"The ABS system does not always decrease stopping distance. You should always maintain a safe following distance from other vehicles.

When driving on badly surfaced roads, gravel roads, icy road, or over deep newly fallen snow, stopping distances may be longer for a vehicle with the ABS system than one without. When driving under these conditions,therefore, reduce your speed and leave ample distance from other vehicles."​