On Mon, 2009-11-23 at 10:38 -0500, Dave Tweed wrote:
> > Any skid/slide in any direction means you are unadhered to the road.
> 
> Yes, and the thing that everyone seems to overlook is that the whole
> prinicple behind ABS (and "traction control" when accelerating) is that it
> works by detecting wheel skid and then (supposedly) quickly reacting to it
> by modulating the brake cylinder pressure. In other words, by the time the
> system kicks in, you've already lost adhesion. The system is only helpful
> if you're in a situation in which it is indeed possible to reacquire
> adhesion by reducing brake pressure.

Very true, the best example of this is driving on sheer ice (i.e. a
frozen lake). ABS is completely hopeless in those situations. OTOH,
sheer ice is REALLY fun to play on with a car, assuming there's nothing
around you... :)

IMHO ABS is very hit and miss (no pun intended). There are MANY
situations where ABS "saves the day", but there are also some (common)
situations where ABS makes things worse. On the balance I think having
ABS is better (not like I have a choice, I believe every car sold where
I live has ABS). Note I'm ignoring issues where the user FUBARs the
ABS's attempts (i.e. pumping the brakes, yanking the steering wheel,
etc.).

TTYL

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