Reducing Rollovers With ESP

With the Ford/Firestone crisis focusing attention on deadly rollovers, automakers are rushing to install new technology that can help prevent vehicles from tipping over: electronic stability packages, or ESPs.

The ESP system works using complicated sensors that compare the driver's steering to the car's turning, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

When the two don't match up, as in the beginning of a skid, a hydraulic control unit selectively brakes any — or all — of the wheels independently, while also decelerating. All this happens without tapping the brakes or any input from the driver.

As a result, the vehicle is more likely to avoid a dangerous fishtail, loss of control, and rollover.

Mercedes was first to implement ESP after the embarrassing premiere of its European "Baby Benz" three years ago: The car tipped over, carrying a load of auto journalists, no less.

Now ESP is standard on all Mercedes in the United States, and a handful of other cars. But critics say it's largely missing where it's needed the most.

Brian O'Neill of the Insurance Institute for Auto Safety says, "Where we need the packages, these electronic stability packages, are on vehicles that are prone to roll over — the SUVs."

That is why General Motors offered CBS News an advance demonstration of its version of ESP, to be offered on the Cadillac Escalades SUV next year.

Even on a very slippery surface, the vehicle didn't get out of control after suddenly jerking the wheel to avoid a sudden obstacle.

Ford, fighting those devastating images of its SUVs tipping after blown Firestone tires, will offer ESP on Explorers starting next year as well.

But as dramatic as these demonstrations are, ESP has its limits: while it can seem to read your mind at times, it can't think for you.

The engineers are still working on that.