Had a guy break hard at a traffic light in front of me the other day (for some reason, it was green). I was probably going under 25mph, jammed down on the pedal and got only one "thump" of the ABS before I came to a standing halt. It stopped so fast that I was waiting to get plowed from behind. Very impressed with the whole event as I have had to do this in the past with other vehicles (hey, it's Atlanta) and found them much more traumatic in response.
The car measures the rate at which you apply the brakes. If you apply very rapidly (when you are startled, your instinct pushes the pedal very, very fast), no matter how hard you press the pedal, the car will apply full brakes and stop far quicker than you ever would. The programming of that technology is pretty incredible, really. "Brake Assist" I think they call it.
