ABS: Anti-lock Braking System.

We take steering and stopping for granted: they’re pretty important attributes in a car. But to be able to steer and to stop, a wheel has to be rotating. If it stops rotating (ie. locks-up) then you can’t steer at all and your braking efficiency is drastically reduced.

Trouble is, most of us tend to panic in an emergency. We’ll tend to stamp on the brake pedal if something unexpected happens ahead, and this might well lock the wheels, especially in the wet. At that point you’re just a passenger on the way to the scene of the accident.

Unless you have ABS (which luckily nearly all modern cars do). ABS works by sensing that the wheels are locking up. It then gets in the way of your right foot and the brakes by releasing them and then applying them again very quickly. This is what racing drivers do, but the computer can do it faster. It does this several times every second, which explains the juddering feeling you might have felt if you’ve had to brake in an emergency, or on a very slippery surface.

ABS is one of those technologies that you don’t realise is there most of the time, but it might just save your life when you need it.