I just drove a car with Active Cruise Control and it’s cool.
On the highway, I set the speed at 65mph and the ACC kept the right distance between my car and the traffic ahead. Most of the time I was actually going about 60. When the traffic slowed down, the car slowed down; traffic faster, car goes faster. And I was able to set my preferred distance from the other cars, within a certain range. (At the shortest distance allowed, I felt that I was tailgating.) If there were no cars ahead, then it operated pretty much like regular cruise control. I could still accelerate using the pedal and it would deactivate if I hit the brake, but I could press Resume immediately since the car would accelerate only to the point where it was a safe distance from the car ahead.
Obviously, you still have to drive the car. The ACC will never apply more than 10% braking so there is no automatic panic stop.
I’ve never been a big fan of cruise control but this new system is much more useful, especially on long trips in moderately heavy highway traffic where regular cruise control is practically useless.
I expect that a healthy proportion of the population would become complacent and let their defensive driving skills wane or remain underdeveloped. I’d be very curious to see whether ACC ends up reducing or increasing the number of accidents. I have my suspicions, but then again, I’m a curmudgeon (at age 28, no less).
I don’t see how this could be a benefit to safety. I imagine most using cruise control will take their feet off the pedals (otherwise, what’s the point) and that’s going to add a significant amount of reaction time in the event they do need to apply the brakes or gas.
Furthermore, I don’t believe it unlikely that this will further reduce driver concentration all-around.
I think they probably will. I know I had the cruise control (standard, not ACC) conk out on me the other day for some strange reason, and I pretty much sat there, staring at everything, wondering why the car was going so slow, before I thought to hit the gas.
I can’t tell you how many times a situation that looked like it called for a little slowing down, has suddenly turned into one where I’ve been forced into a panic stop. Also, car makers tend to have problems getting the complicated electrical systems to work right on cars (some have better luck than others), I can’t imagine the kind of interstate nightmares that’s going to cause when somebody’s ACC system goes tits up at around 80 MPH.
This will probably be a good first step towards getting people to accept the idea of automatic pilot for automobiles. A reliable and safe auto pilot system would be extremely useful in congested areas and for long trips, computers can react many times faster than you are physically capable of and don’t have a ‘concentration’ to break. I’ve driven many a long distance road trip and think it would have been wonderful to drive onto the interstate… input my destination and have the car merge me into the 'Auto Pilot Only" lane then go to sleep, read a book, look at the scenery, watch a movie, play Civ IV… whatever ;> I enjoy driving, but anything gets old after a few hours and interstate driving isn’t the most enjoyable kind anyway.
I,ve been waiting for this for years. I do a lot of highway driving for work, and regular cruise control is maddening. Every uphill slope, the car in front of you slows down and downhill, they speed up. I will definitely use an active cruise control.
BTW, going 75 mph on I-95, I don’t think I’m gonna get complacent.
It sounds interesting, but if it can be set to tailgate it should be illegal IMHO (I don’t beleive there are any situations in the drivers manual that allow tailgating).
IIRC, it’s the same type of radar used for back up alarms in cars that let the driver know there’s something behind the vehicle. Question is: Would it cause problems with police radars?
Personally, I am against any sort of cruise control. If you are behind the wheel, you should be in complete control of the car’s direction and speed. If you can’t do that, or don’t want to, then you should not be driving.
I see you spend alot of time on the freeway following people who maintain an average speed by fluxuating their speed over a 20 mph range…nothing and I mean nothing about driving irritates me more than being stuck behind some asshat who keeps going from 75 down to 60 to 65 to 55 to 70. by your statements aproxxamatly 90% of the drivers on the road shouldnt be driving…I ain’t calling you wrong but I sure as hell dont see it happening.
that and the comment (not yours) about people who even after driving over 10000000 hills STILL havent figured out the part where gravity will slow your car down while climbing (as in hit the gas pedal harder dumbass) and speed the car when going down (as in less gas pedal dumbass) holds pelnty of water as well.
ACC sounds like a dream for experienced good drivers and like the usual excuse poor drivers will give when they screw up.
By this logic automatic transmissions (except for manu-matic), ABS, traction control, vechical dynamic control and drive by wire should also be banned. Technology goes on, if you don’t too I suspect you will be walking.
