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Comment by fyfy18 | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how many minor incidents it has prevented though. I was raised in the country where roads are often wet or icy in winter. Without ABS if you go around a corner and hit some black ice there is a good chance you would spin out and end up in a hedge or a tree. At the low speeds you need to drive (<20mph) it’s unlikely that the passengers would suffer any serious injuries.

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As someone who drives rather frequently in atrocious winter weather conditions. I often wonder how AEB will handle black-ice and deep snow where tapping the break gives you a chance for loosing traction and ending up in the ditch.

First rule of winter driving is don't touch the brake.

I guess AEB will engage the brakes like a human would so the other safety systems like ABS and ESC so the car wouldn't behave worse than if a human would break.

Depending on the conditions that can be fairly acceptable, for purposes of drifting a modern car's breaks suck a lot thanks to those two (the handbrake is free game tho)

> First rule of winter driving is don't touch the brake

That doesn't sound right. Pretty much all cars today have ABS, which should make sure that you don't lose traction.

When I first drove a car with ABS in winter I was amazed how well the breaks worked in bad conditions -- of course the car would take a lot longer to come to a stop, but it did come to a stop.

Having just escaped from the snowpocalypse of Minneapolis tonight, I can tell you this is right.

The other thing is to accelerate through turns - it helps maintain traction.

The key feature of ABS is that it prevents the steering wheels from locking up, allowing the driver to steer around the obstacle. On loose surfaces, ABS can cause braking distances to increase; locked wheels can dig into gravel and slush, causing it to stack up and increase friction. ABS is also useless on sheet ice (but then, no braking system is genuinely at an advantage there).

These are edge cases though, and ABS does generally improve braking distances. At the very least, it gives you a much better chance of avoiding the obstacle in your path.

You really shouldn't have to brake hard enough that the ABS comes on. Be smooth, don't jam the pedal, brake right on the edge of ABS activation.

No, the first rule is "be smooth". No sudden sharp inputs, give the car time to settle and adjust to what you're doing.

You can absolutely brake, you just have to be smooth and gradual.

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