What's The Difference Between Traction Control and VSC?

Here is one of the many results from a Google search.

What is the difference between ESC, ABS and traction control?
Where ABS and traction control were effective in assisting with braking and acceleration, the addition of the extra sensors enables ESC to offer the driver assistance in turning under hazardous conditions.

 

I'm sure others will provide much greater detail, but in short:

Traction Control keeps the front wheels from spinning when power is applied and there isn't traction. The reason it is standard is that spinning the tires too fast can over rev the HSD and damage it.

VSC (Vehicle Stability Control) keeps the car going in the direction you are steering. It measure the steering angle and yaw of the car as you go around a curve. If the direction you are steering and the direction the car is moving don't match, it can brake wheels individually to get the car to line up with the direction you want to go. It's an extra since it involves a yaw sensor and computer to integrate the feeds and outputs to the brakes.

When I tried to post this at 17:23 PDT, PriusChat seemed to be down or in a weird state.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ May 3 2007, 08:26 PM) [snapback]435128[/snapback]</div>

Exactly right. Sombody else here mentioned that the power steering is linked into it as well. My two cents: I got VSC entirely by accident. Didn't know what it was when I bought the car. But I have come to learn that it appears to be really effective in helping to avoid bad accidents -- like you end up with 25% to 33% fewer reportable accidents, based on trials in a variety of cars. That's why the insurance industry and Consumer Reports, among others, are pushing it really hard. So I hope I never need it but I'm glad I got it. You ought to do a search here -- somebody posted a thread with link to a video of a VSC-equippped care doing emergency avoidance.

 

Bill Merchant beat me to the simple explanation.

I will add that when I lived in Fargo, ND, it was common to find ice forming right at the spot where cars stop at an intersection, so that cars would spin their tires as they tried to move away from the stop. You'd see them sort of sidling back and forth, like a cat preparing to pounce, as they tried to move away from their spot on the ice.

Traction Control was so effective, that I was able to get through these kinds of intersections faster than most other cars.

VSC is what saves your hide when you start to skid in a turn, and it saved mine several times.

ABS (though the OP didn't ask) keeps you going in a straight line when you brake hard on ice, or other slippery conditions.

The first two operate by applying brakes selectively to a single wheel when the computer determines it's necessary. ABS operates by releasing the brakes on one or more wheels, as deemed necessary by the computer.