Tata Motors gives safety a boost, employs ESC in its Prima, Signa trucks

Tata Motors, which is seeing a smart uptick in its commercial vehicle sales operation, today showcased a new safety technology feature – Wabco India’s Electronic Stability Control (ESCsmart) – for its range of Prima and Signa trucks at an event in Chennai today.

ESC is to be made available on the Prima – Tractors 4025.S, 4925 and Trucks 2523T, 3123T and 3723T and Signa LPS 4018 and LPS 4923 as well as LPT platforms of 25T, 31T and 37T.

In addition, Tata Motors also offers Automatic Traction Control (ATC) and Hill Start Aid (HSA) safety technology for the range of trucks and buses, which will go a long way in helping prevent truck and bus accidents by increasing vehicle stability and safety. Electronic Stability Control (ESC) helps eliminate more than 50 percent of rollover crashes and reduce loss-of-control crashes by 25 percent.

Developed in partnership with Tier 1 supplier Wabco India, these technologies provide complete value to customers by providing vehicle stability, reducing accident risk, repair cost and improving vehicle uptime, thus enhancing road safety and efficiency of commercial vehicles.

ESCsmart functionality builds on Wabco’s anti-lock braking system (ABS) and electronic braking system (EBS) platforms. It is an active safety system that monitors vehicle roll and stability. The system can automatically intervene, independent of the driver, when a high risk of instability is detected, thus helping to reduce the likelihood of accidents associated with rollover, skidding and jackknifing.

Commenting on this first-mover initiative, Girish Wagh, Head - Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors, said: “Safety is of paramount importance to us and the introduction of new safety technologies further reiterates our commitment to strengthen the safety performance of our products and introduce future technologies, ahead of time. We are the first OEM in India who is deploying Electronic Stability Control (ESCsmart) safety technology in all our medium and heavy commercial vehicles. We are delighted to work with class-leading global suppliers like Wabco to develop innovative and technology leading products for our Indian customers.”

Dr A K Jindal, VP and Head Engineering (CVBU), Tata Motors, said, “Through our partnership with Wabco, we have improved some of the parameters of Electronic Stability Control, thus making it suitable for Indian operations. As a part of our R&D efforts, we are committed to pioneering and inventing solutions that promote driver safety and minimise negative impacts that may occur in case of accidents. We are confident that the introduction of new safety technologies in our M&HCVs will further aid the government’s vision to improve driver and road safety in India.”

ESC functionality is added on Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) which was introduced as a part of regulatory compliance as per the Central Motors Vehicle Rules promulgated by the government for all vehicles more than 12 ton GVW.

While ABS contributes significantly to the safety of vehicles under different road conditions, ESC takes the safety to the next level by providing safety under demanding conditions of various handling manoeuvres, thereby preventing or minimising the probability of accidents.

Functionally, ESC predicts forthcoming instability and automatically intervenes by applying brakes to avoid rollover, skidding and jack-knifing. It measures vehicle’s lateral acceleration, roll about its vertical axis through sensors, and applies brakes on selective wheels to control instability. Its advantages are in terms of preventing jack-knifing in tractor-trailers, improving directional stability during dynamic manoeuvres and preventing a rollover while turning at high speed.

Speaking at the demonstration of ESCsmart in Chennai today, Jacques Esculier, Wabco chairman and CEO said, “Following pioneering the introduction of ABS for CVs in India, Wabco is extremely proud to now showcase ESCsmart jointly with Tata Motors and to play a key role in further helping to support the Government of India’s vision to reduce road accidents. The self-learning capabilities of ESCsmart also help vehicle manufacturers to eliminate the necessity of physically testing all variants of vehicles during homologation, saving considerable time and labour.  We look forward to paving the way for its further adoption in India.”

P Kaniappan, MD, Wabco India, said, “Launching ESCsmart technology in India in partnership with Tata Motors is fully in line with Wabco’s strategy to be the supplier of choice for products and systems that contribute to the safety of CVs. ESCsmart is the industry’s first intelligent ESC system for pneumatic ABS in India.”