LogFAQs > #893975877

MannerSaurus posted...

ABS pulses brakes a thousand times faster than any human being can dream of, but you are right... that in certain conditions, these computer safeties aren't an end-all solution and can actually be dangerous.

I know from repeat experience that in snowy slippery conditions ABS feels like it catapults the car forward rather than helping to stop the car. it's almost funny when you do it in a controlled situation, but it sure makes me wish I could turn the damn thing off. If I recall, I got used to applying the brakes in a certain way that kept the ABS off but locked the wheels. At the speeds I was going, coming to a locked sliding stop was FAR superior than the ABS.

MannerSaurus posted...

ABS pulses brakes a thousand times faster than any human being can dream of

I think it's designed for wet conditions, and not snowy icy conditions. If you have the chance test it out on snow and ice. Try braking with ABS (so full foot on the brake letting it pulse), and then try threshold braking (so hold just above where the ABS kicks in). The ABS is *terrible* in comparison. The worst is at very slow speeds in very rough snow, where the ABS almost does nothing and you're basically just coasting to a stop. It feels like hitting the gas rather than the brakes. It's not just worse than manual braking, but it's even worse than locking the wheels.

Thinking about it, the reason it feels like hitting the gas is because when you hit the brakes you do get deceleration at first, right until the ABS kicks in. It's very noticeable that you *had* deceleration and then you lost it. In fact, I think mathematically, removal of deceleration *is* acceleration... so it kind of is like hitting the gas; just it's accelerating you from optimal braking back up to zero.
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