Continental AG has developed a new technology that will give drivers advance warning about low-grip conditions.
"Without enough friction between tires and road, there is no way of keeping a vehicle under control," say Continental officials.
"Active safety systems such as antilock braking systems and electronic stability control will help situations when emergency braking or imminent skidding puts a driver's skill to the ultimate test. However, even such valuable systems will only react... realistically, it is entirely up to the driver to estimate whether there is enough grip to allow for the vehicle's current speed."
Continental's new system "uses data from vehicle dynamics sensors and interprets them together with information from additional environmental and tire sensors. The basic idea is to inform the driver as soon as he or she gets too close to the limits of friction between tire and road.
"For that purpose, the system estimates the required friction for a particular driving maneuver, estimates the maximum available friction and calculates the difference."
