Electronic brakeforce distribution or EBD is an automobile brake technology that automatically varies the amount of force applied to each of a vehicle's brakes, based on road conditions, speed, loading, etc. Often coupled with anti-lock braking systems, EBD can apply more or less braking pressure to each wheel in order to maximize stopping power whilst maintaining steering control.
How it works
When a rotating wheel comes under heavy braking, it is prone to lock-up. In motor vehicles, the anti-lock braking system (ABS) works to prevent this by monitoring wheel speeds and taking action in the form of releasing pressure on the braking circuit when a rapid deceleration occurs in any of the wheels to ensure steering control is maintained during emergency braking. This has its disadvantages though, as different amounts of braking pressure are required to lock a rotating wheel on different surfaces. For example, less braking pressure would be needed to lock a wheel which was in contact with ice than a wheel which was in contact with an asphalt road. In a situation where the wheels of a vehicle are on different surfaces (for example the two left wheels are on a concrete road and the two right wheels were on snow), during an emergency stop ABS would detect the two right wheels about to lock and would activate, even though the two left wheels would not have locked when the right wheels did. EBD detects such conditions and electronically controls the braking force applied to each individual wheel, and therefore maximizes the braking force to ensure a maximum braking effectiveness. The final result is more precise and effective braking under all conditions, and also makes the car much more stable under heavy braking, reducing front end dive.
