[rstuart4133]

I'd agree anti-lock brakes haven't had much effect. It will only help people who haven't learnt how to brake properly, but we all get plenty of practice at that during everyday driving so I expect the difference is marginal. But the story is different with a related technology, ESP, which is mandatory where I live.

No so long ago I was caught out not paying enough attention approaching a roundabout at a creek crossing on a rainy day. It dawned what I hadn't allowed for the slippery road conditions on that day when the car started to slide towards the creek rather than go the direction I was steering. I'm by no means an expert driver, but I've spun a car off a dirt road into the bush a few times in my miss-spent youth, enough to know when I've lost control beyond recovery. I only had a few meters before a collision, but another thing I learnt during that miss-spent youth is if you can arrange to slide into a guard rail sideways so the load is spread along the entire side, if your speed is low enough you might get away with no panel beating at all. So I eased off the brakes to get maximum steerage.

Then the car noticed the steering wheels had lost traction, and the ESP cut in. ESP boils down to steering with the brakes and engine - sort of like a handbrake turn, but the brakes are applied to a front and a rear wheel on opposing sides and the engine powers the other two. There is no way to do it manually. Turns out it's amazingly effective, as it both slows you down and gets the car pointing in the right direction.

There was no accident that day.

I've stomped on the brakes quite a few times to see what ABS in action feels like. I reckon I can do a better job manually. But there is no way I'd drive so crazily that ESP cut in on anything but a skid pan. Besides, there is no point. I know I could never do as good a job, because as I said, there is no way to manually replicate what ESP does. Having said that, a good racing driver will do better without ESP because they get the car pointing in the right direction before it starts skidding - but that requires paying more attention than I was at the time.

[opencl]

I certainly hope that people do not get practice braking as hard as possible without locking up the wheels during everyday driving. Everyone 'learns' it when they first learn to drive but without frequent practice it is not going to be your immediate response when you get in a situation that requires sudden very hard braking to avoid a collision. Modern ABS is probably better at braking than 95%+ of people that aren't race car drivers ESPECIALLY in the situations where it's actually needed and people are probably panicking.

What you refer to as ESP is usually known as ESC where I live and it's also been mandatory here for a while, agreed that it is pretty incredible. I can definitely see it giving people a false sense of security especially in low traction conditions like snow/ice/rain.