From a bold idea to a Europe-wide requirement: ESP® reaches 20 years of saving lives
Stuttgart. A guardian angel is celebrating a milestone anniversary: in March 1995, Mercedes-Benz introduced the Electronic Stability Program ESP®. Alongside the seat belt, airbag and ABS, the Daimler invention is by far the most significant safety system of modern passenger cars and over the years has helped to save the lives of several thousand people. ESP® has been mandatory for new passenger cars in Europe since November 2011.
It was with ABS (1978) and acceleration skid control (1985) that safety pioneer Mercedes-Benz began to control dynamic driving processes with electronic systems for the first time. The next step followed in 1995: additional sensors that recognise the driver's directional intentions (steering angle sensor) and whether the car is sliding sideways (lateral acceleration sensor), or is in the process of rotating around its own vertical axis...
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