How It Works: ABS - Driving
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It may not seem the way things should work, but when you hit the brakes hard – especially in a panic stop – sometimes you don’t want them to grab hard and hold on. And that’s where your vehicle’s anti-lock brakes (ABS) come in.
Article contentWhat is ABS?
Article contentArticle contentABS has been around a long time: there were some experimental versions on cars as far back as the 1930s. It was available on a handful of models around 1970, but it only started becoming more common in the 1980s. Since the 2012 model year, it’s been required on every new passenger vehicle in Canada. Electronic stability control (ESC), which builds on ABS and helps to correct sideways skids, is also mandatory.
Article contentAdvertisement 1Story continues belowThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article contentWhat does ABS do?
Article contentAnti-lock brakes help tires to maintain their grip. This allows you to steer while you’re braking hard, which might make the difference between avoiding an obstacle or smacking into it.
Article contentArticle contentYour wheels stop turning when you hit the brakes, but it’s your tires gripping the pavement that actually stops your vehicle. If you don’t have ABS and the tires can’t grip, the wheels lock up but the tires slide. Even if you try to steer, the vehicle will keep sliding out of your control.
Article contentArticle contentPumping the brakes
Article contentBefore ABS, drivers were taught to pump the brake pedal when this happened. Each time the brakes are released, the tires turn a little and grip the asphalt. That quick, alternating on-off brings the vehicle to a controlled stop. The anti-lock brake system does the same thing by rapidly applying and releasing the brakes, but much faster than anyone could do it – as much as several times a second when required. Because the tires are maintaining their grip, you can steer while braking.
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Jil McIntosh
Jil McIntosh specializes in new-car reviews, auto technology and antique cars, including the two 1940s vehicles in her garage. She is currently a freelance Writer at Driving.ca since 2016Summary
· Professional writer for more than 35 years, appearing in some of the top publications in Canada and the U.S.
· Specialties include new-vehicle reviews, old cars and automotive history, automotive news, and “How It Works” columns that explain vehicle features and technology
· Member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) since 2003; voting member for AJAC Canadian Car of the Year Awards; juror on the Women’s World Car of the Year Awards
Education
Jil McIntosh graduated from East York Collegiate in Toronto, and then continued her education at the School of Hard Knocks. Her early jobs including driving a taxi in Toronto; and warranty administration in a new-vehicle dealership, where she also held information classes for customers, explaining the inner mechanical workings of vehicles and their features.
Experience
Jil McIntosh is a freelance writer who has been writing for Driving.ca since 2016, but she’s been a professional writer starting when most cars still had carburetors. At the age of eleven, she had a story published in the defunct Toronto Telegram newspaper, for which she was paid $25; given the short length of the story and the dollar’s buying power at the time, that might have been the relatively best-paid piece she’s ever written.
An old-car enthusiast who owns a 1947 Cadillac and 1949 Studebaker truck, she began her writing career crafting stories for antique-car and hot-rod car club magazines. When the Ontario-based newspaper Old Autos started up in 1987, dedicated to the antique-car hobby, she became a columnist starting with its second issue; the newspaper is still around and she still writes for it. Not long after the Toronto Star launched its Wheels section in 1986 – the first Canadian newspaper to include an auto section – she became one of its regular writers. She started out writing feature stories, and then added “new-vehicle reviewer” to her resume in 1999. She stayed with Wheels, in print and later digital as well, until the publication made a cost-cutting decision to shed its freelance writers. She joined Driving.ca the very next day.
In addition to Driving.ca, she writes for industry-focused publications, including Automotive News Canada and Autosphere. Over the years, her automotive work also appeared in such publications as Cars & Parts, Street Rodder, Canadian Hot Rods, AutoTrader, Sharp, Taxi News, Maclean’s, The Chicago Tribune, Forbes Wheels, Canadian Driver, Sympatico Autos, and Reader’s Digest. Her non-automotive work, covering such topics as travel, food and drink, rural living, fountain pen collecting, and celebrity interviews, has appeared in publications including Harrowsmith, Where New Orleans, Pen World, The Book for Men, Rural Delivery, and Gambit.
Major awards won by the author
2016 AJAC Journalist of the Year; Car Care Canada / CAA Safety Journalism award winner in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013, runner-up in 2021; Pirelli Photography Award 2015; Environmental Journalism Award 2019; Technical Writing Award 2020; Vehicle Testing Review award 2020, runner-up in 2022; Feature Story award winner 2020; inducted into the Street Rodding Hall of Fame in 1994.
Contact info
Email: [email protected]
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jilmcintosh/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JilMcIntosh
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