So there was this video of a woman managing to avoid a crash by steering in a special way. I’m learning to drive rn and people keep saying if you skid you steer into it, but isn’t that the opposite of what it feels like you would do?
In: Physics
Yes, it is counterintuitive. This is why drivers should learn this in a school or something.
The reason is straightforward. The car that is skidding is no longer responding to the steering direction. Traction has broken down between the tire and the road and it is sliding.
Steering into the skid gives the driver the chance (as the car is slowing down) to regain traction by allowing the tire to rotate in the direction the car “wants” to go rather than simply sliding. Once this traction is regained, gently steering the car gives the driver some opportunity to direct the car and regain steering control.
If a driver does the intuitive thing and try to steer away from the slide, then the situation is made worse, the tires have no way to regain traction with the road and the car just continues to slide where it wants to due to momentum.
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