Situations in which emergency braking may be necessary are quite rare, but you should still be prepared for them. How then to brake when our car is equipped with ABS?
The ABS system is now common knowledge, and every person who has a category B driver’s license should know what it is responsible for. This system is older than the vast majority of drivers, and since May 1, 2004, it has been prohibited in the European Union to sell new passenger cars that are not equipped with ABS. Today you will find it on the equipment of virtually every car around the world.
ABS is a special system designed to prevent the wheels from locking up during heavy braking. This can happen when the braking force is so great that it completely stops the rotation of the wheel. This is really dangerous, as it increases the braking distance and makes the wheel impossible to turn, making it impossible to avoid an obstacle on the road, for example.
In cars that are equipped with ABS, there is only one right way to brake. We are talking about pressing the pedal to the floor. Of course, this applies to situations in which emergency braking is necessary. When we do this, we may feel the brake pedal start to bounce a bit. In such a situation, we must maintain pressure on the pedal, as this means that the ABS system is starting to work.
The most common mistake we make in emergency braking with ABS is just to reduce pressure on the brake when we feel it start to bounce. This way, we don’t use the maximum braking force at the time, and it can extend the braking distance by as much as a dozen or more meters. This is why maintaining full pressure on the brake is so important.
Pulse braking in cars equipped with ABS makes little sense. In fact, in such vehicles the system brakes in this way automatically. ABS, by virtue of the fact that it is a precise device that controls the braking force, can be even several times more effective than a human. As a result, stopping the car is extremely easy and does not require much skill other than maintaining pressure on the brake pedal, which of course is not demanding.
main photo: pixabay.com/HermannMessing
