Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS)

Imagine driving down the highway when suddenly a deer decides to run and stop right in the middle of the road. You slam the brake pedal and the car screeches to a halt, without sliding. After stepping outside the car, you realize the point when you started braking and the point where you stopped were not that far apart either. The reason your car did not slide was because of the Anti-lock Braking System, also known as ABS. ABS prevents loss of traction caused by locking the wheels by pulsating the brakes instead of holding all of the pressure the entire time. As a result, the car did not skid to the extent that it would without ABS, as well as it increased control of the vehicle.

The main goal of ABS is to give the driver better control during intense braking. Without ABS, all four wheels would lock up and immediately lose traction on the road. A loss of traction would lead to the car skidding much further and resulting in an uncontrolled collision. Even if the driver were to turn, the front wheels would continue to skid and the car would keep moving in the initial direction because they are locked. A solution to this loss of traction is using an anti-lock braking system, allowing the wheels to spin momentarily by releasing brake pressure, then reapplying brake pressure in quick bursts. Car brakes work by adding friction to a car’s wheel to make it slow down and eventually stop. However, there is no spot on a wheel to apply friction, so a brake disc, or rotor, is attached to the wheel hub and sits behind the wheel. The brake disc spins along with the wheel, and when the car needs to be stopped, the brake pads will squeeze against the wheel by a brake caliper, which is powered through a hydraulic system which leads to the brake pedal inside the car. The way ABS works is by having a sensor which monitors wheel speed. When a wheel locks up, a message is sent to a computer which releases and applies brake pressure, even with your foot on the brake pedal.