What is the Anti-lock Braking System?
In last week’s How’s This Work, we looked at the Honda-exclusive ECON button that automatically adjusts your vehicle for more efficient driving, so this week we thought we’d look at a standard safety
What is the Anti-lock Braking System?
In last week’s How’s This Work, we looked at the Honda-exclusive ECON button that automatically adjusts your vehicle for more efficient driving, so this week we thought we’d look at a standard safety feature found pretty much everywhere across the market: the Anti-lock Braking System, or ABS for short. ABS were first introduced in aviation in the twenties, but have been around in land vehicles as early as 1971. The modern anti-lock brakes you’re familiar with today were first introduced in 1993 on a Lincoln, and they have since spread out across the greater market.
[ LAST WEEK: What is the ECON Button? ]
How do ABS work?
These days, safety features have become a big aspect when researching a new vehicle. You want to make sure it has a backup camera, and it doesn’t hurt to have other fancy technologies like blind spot monitor or automatic emergency braking. But even though these technological advancements in safety features are present in the mainstream today, there are still plenty of other features and technologies working to keep you safe that you probably don’t even know about. Much like seatbelts and airbags, anti-lock brakes are certainly one of them.
Without an anti-lock braking system installed, the wheels of your vehicle could become locked if you apply a sudden burst of pressure to the brakes. ABS is meant to prevent that, thus doing exactly what it sounds like their meant to do. If your wheels were to lock up upon braking, then your vehicle would become largely uncontrollable, causing you to skid around on the road possibly even sending you off of it or flipping over.
Needless to say, that’s not something you want to have happen. So make sure you’re purchasing a vehicle with an anti-lock braking system installed, and make sure that it’s always working properly