In five years, the United States government will require all new cars to have anti-rollover technology as a standard safety feature. Automakers will be mandated to include electronic stability control (ESC) devices in all their new vehicles by the model tear 2012. ESC has been widely praised by automakers, safety advocates and suppliers for its important role in decreasing the number of traffic deaths and injuries due to rollovers. The technology detects when a driver may lose control of the vehicle and automatically applies the brakes to individual wheels to help keep them stable and avoid a rollover.

Currently, about 40% of all new vehicles offer ESC as standard equipment. Studies revealed that ESC has the potential to prevent over 10,000 deaths every year if all vehicles will be equipped with it. This is almost a quarter of the over 43,000 deaths that occur on our roads every year. William Kozyra, president and CEO of Continental Automotive systems, a top supplier of stability control in North America praised ESC as “the most important automotive safety technology of our generation”.