Honda has added a new safety feature to its Vehicle Stability Assist system called Motion Adaptive Electric Power Steering (Motion Adaptive EPS). Currently only available with the newly launched Honda Legend, it will be added to the Japanese-market Honda Accord (not the same as our Accord as it is known as the Honda Inspire there) and the next generation Honda Odyssey.
Motion Adaptive EPS provides steering wheel feedback to the driver during an unstable slippery corner to prompt the driver’s action in steering the wheel the right way as sometimes drivers tend to over-correct the steering angle. It can also correct steering input when braking on a surface which causes uneven traction between the left and right side wheels of the car.
While it remains a premium feature for now, like all technologies Motion Adaptive EPS should slowly trickle down to the rest of the Honda range. The only question is how long?
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meaning that the car steer itself to the right path or angle in unfortunate event, am i right so far….if so, this system could be possibly enhanced so that the can drive by itself using gps etc
whatever happen to the essence of driving? Engineers in car companies should concentrate on making a car lighter and more efficient, not working on control systems for making idiots drive like heroes…it might work in snowy countries, but in Malaysia where the weather is hot and the cars are weak, we’re paying for things we don’t need
Hello, our country does have rain… Have you drive your car during heavy rain? If you went up Genting on rainy day then you will know VSA importance…
more electric wizardry that takes the skill and fear out of driving
i totally agree with you abtm.
but if all these driver aids are used by drivers to avoid accidents, yes, i’m all for it. as a safety device, it gets my thumbs up.
if you need something like VSA to save you coz you’re going too fast in the rain while driving on genting roads, i’ll say thats the wrong reason. If you get into trouble coz you did something stupid, and have to depend on an electronic aid to save you, you’re probably not a really good driver to begin with.
isnt this a system from bmw called active steering?
Genting roads are slipery during rainy days. Especially when you are going down the hill.
Have you drive your car down there when raining? Even you are slow your car will slip when going corners!
I have seen VSA activated in an Honda Civic and i know how it works. It really save your car from going sideways from left to right. Not only help your car to stabilize and also let you have more control of the car.
driver’s butt is the best “Stability Assist system” there is. Everyone has it. it’s simple and free, but somehow some ppl still may prefer electronics as they may sound nice and special to have in their car.
Littlefire85,
Its called a “Driving Aid”.
ie…like hearing aid.
It helps drivers which lacks skill.
If your car slides around going downhill from genting during rainstorms only mean one thing, you were not a good judge of the driving conditions and vehicle/tyre capability.
A little rain and you need VSA? Try driving a high powered RWD car on ice and snow. For the record (and risk getting labled as a luddite) I hate driving aids, for what its worth i feel all these aids are intrusive and unpredictable. I have sampled BMWs active steering and traction control on a slalom course and don’t like it. Its horrible.
VSA jsut helps already bad drivers from getting into a mess, it doens’t make them better drivers, if anything, makes them worst…as the safety net just does nothing but gives them a false sense of security and encourages them to exceed the limit even more.
if u are confidence in yourself, then of cos this is waste of money. But do u have confidence, let says, in your wife, or son, or daughter when one of them driving alone down hill on genting on a rainy day? sometime things are there for “just in case” cases, if u dont believe in those cases, then insurrance companies should just close shop, and we save hell lots of money.
just my 2 cents
Until they come up with a driving “aid” that actually acts like a driver and frees me from touching the steering wheel, all other driving aids are kinda redundant and not so useful. Come to think of it, I might as well hire a driver…
I sense a phenomenon called “silent majority vs vocal minority” here. Granted, most of you, by the virtue of being in this forum are car enthusiasts. You have better driving skills, love to feel the finer input from your cars, can access the potentially dangerous situation better bla bla bla. But..you are the vocal minority if compared to the overall car owners in M’sia.
The great silent majority out there would think differently. I bet they’ll love to have this Park Assist, ABS, VSA, EBD and all those acronyms in their cars. Safety & convenience matter more to them than driving enjoyment.
with all these technologies, the future ppl can no longer drive proper
alihms, i’m a driving enthusiasts 1st, car enthusiast 2nd. but i totally agree with you. as i mentioned in my post, driver aids, etc. are great where safety is concerned, and how it can help a regular driver when the situation arises.
but i know too many people who drive at crazy speeds in poor weather conditions, because they believe nothing will happen to them coz of all the fancy-shmancy driver aids they have in their cars, plus ncap 5 star ratings, and multiple air-bags.. that to me, is the wrong reason.
oh, another driving aid, which takes abit of the fun out of driving.
not to mention you can’t do powerslides without the steering wheel correcting you.
sigh, what happened to pure driving sensation.
WOW!!!!!!! jus imagine if the system goes faulty………arrghhhh…..can’t imagine wat the stering wheel will do by itself….
while i understand the point that some made on behalf of the “silent majority”,
its just this. Make things safe, and drivers will take more risk. Its just human nature. It ends up equaling itself out.
Everyone will be safer drivers out there if there was a hugh spike coming out from the steering columm instead of an airbag.
I have heard this before, when questioning why a colleague drives like a maniac (she obviously has not got the skill to handle the car the way she drives), “oh the car is safe, it have airbags”…begs the question “WTF” don’t it?
I take (or more like drag) my wife to the track and teach her how to handle the car on its limits, and put her through what amounts to a comprehensive defensive driving course. Makes her a better driver now that she know just how little control you have once over the limit.
Education and training is the key, not driving aids.
BMW, if I infer you correctly, you are saying – car should not be equipped with these driving aids. They only encourage irresponsible driving behaviour. But, isn’t that sort of ‘penalizing the many for the sake of a few’? The ‘few’ here is not driving enthusiasts like most forummers here. The few I mean is those irresponsible drivers.Because of the few, the many (responsible drivers) are denied of the new technologies. I’d say that is unfair.
TLAs (Three letter Acronyms) mean they make sinful amounts of money for the makers. Why do you need to control oversteer on a Front Wheel Drive car that comes out of Honda? If you understeer, gently lift off the gas. Unless its a horid car that does have liftoff oversteer. Or are they implying that they do make wobbly cars and they need these TLAs to compensate for sound suspension engineering?
Dudes if you want safety and convenience, get out of that Camry and get on a bus! You shouldn’t be driving coz you are a hazard to the rest of us.
New accord will have this feature? 5 years is quite a healthy time for this to come down.