Such systems have instead gone primarily to cars, whose lower centre of gravity makes them less prone to rolling in a situation involving a curb or pothole or whatever.
So it's good news that General Motors is going to try to address the problem by adding a more sophisticated version of its Stabilitrak system to many of its SUVs this fall.
Specifically, a four-channel version of Stabilitrak (though Stabili-truk might be more appropriate) will be available later this year on some versions of the 1500 series Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban and Avalanche, and GMC Yukon, Yukon Denali, Yukon XL and Yukon Denali XL.
Previously, a two-channel StabiliTrak was exclusive in GM full-size trucks on the Cadillac Escalade and Escalade EXT.
Terry Woychowski, GM's full-size truck chief engineer, explains that StabiliTrak in these vehicles operates with the antilock system and traction control systems to selectively apply any of the four brakes to help the vehicle a potentially dangerous handling situations, such as skid.
''As always with stability control systems,'' Woychowski says, ''the vehicle senses when its going off the course set by the driver and acts on its own to correct the problem.''
While a loss of control is most likely to happen on ice, snow, wet pavement or gravel roads, these systems help improve stability on a variety of surfaces and speeds, Woychowski says, as well as in emergency lane changes or avoidance maneuvers.