1 July

The road conditions this winter have been appalling for driving on my daily commute. Very wet, dark, foggy, huge numbers of vehicles coming the other way because of the Mt Vic blockage, with all that headlight glare. Often can barely see a thing. I took the video below yesterday. What's kept me sane is Tesla's revolutionary electronic stability control (ESC), combined with its autonomous driving aids. ESC was originally invented by German manufacturers, for diesel and petrol vehicles, but is restricted to correcting loss of control after it's happened, and only can reduce engine speed and apply brakes to each wheel. Tesla ESC acts continuously, in fractions of a second, and can precisely target exact amounts of torque to front and back wheels, as well as regen braking, ordinary braking, steering angle etc. It's a predictive rather than reactive system, and means the car feels planted the whole time, even in terrible traction conditions. Like the Tesla semi video I shared. Combine this with the self-driving tech, which can see even when the driver can't, and it makes horrible drives almost relaxing. This stuff will save so many lives. Nice comparison of the two approaches in the graphic.