None of those things make bad drivers worse. And believe me, there are plenty of bad drivers out there. Essentially, this is technology that says to the (bad) driver “hey, I’ll take care of your speed for you. You only need to pay attention when we’re about to have an emergency.”
I’m not saying that it is evil, or should be banned, but I would suggest that overall, it has a negative impact on the safety of our roads.
Would you be in favour of combining it with some sort of automatic steering?
I’m guessing a lot of the posters here haven’t driven on a highway five and six hours a day, regularly. At my job, I was the “Maryland-DC-Virginia-Guy” for years and can tell you your leg actually gets tired and cruise control is a blessing.
If you’re in the driver’s seat, 100% of your effort should go towards actually controlling that multi-thousand pound projectile you’re in
that means both hands on the wheel, feet on the pedals, pay attention to the road, no frelling around with your cellphone, eating, putting on makeup, shaving, changing the radio station/CD/tape/mp3/etc…, cooking a meal, watching a movie on your laptop, reading the newspaper, etc…
heck, if it was up to me, automatic trannies would be outlawed, as it takes control away from the driver, and cruise control of any sort would be right out
the more sophisticated vehicle automation gets, the greater chance of failure, perhaps even catastrophic failure, keep it simple and largely mechanical and under the control of the driver, not a computer
What? me, a Luddite, NOOOO!!! 
So how do you feel about automatic pilot for airplanes, for when they’ve reached their cruising altitude?
(speaking of multi-thousand pound projectiles…)
False analogy. Flying a plane is not akin to driving a car.
Does a car have numerous instruments providing you with updates on your surroundings? Can any average Joe fly a plane? Is there a rush hour in the sky?
I didn’t claim it was an equivalent analogy. I was just responding to this overgeneralized argument:
I’ve never tried “Active Cruise Control”, so I don’t have anything specific to say on it. But I certainly don’t think that plain old Cruise Control is a Bad Thing[sup]TM[/sup]. I don’t think that it takes away from a driver being able to control his car, and on long road trips, it helps me control my speed so as to keep it at a steady rate (and keeps the leg muscles from tiring or cramping, as sleeepy2 mentions). Using regular cruise control does not negate a person’s ability to use gas pedal or brake pedal.
I can see the argument that the idea of Active Cruise Control could result in people relying more on that for controlling modifications to their speed, so I’m not sure how I feel about this yet, in terms of slowing down people’s actual reaction times.
I drive a car without cruise control, and a manual at that. It means that I can easily speed up or slow down a bit without intending to, especially with changes in terrain. I would like to get cruise control, but it’s a low priority.
The idea of active cruise control is that it is supposed to maintain a safe following distance by modulating your speed, correct? What happens if you’re driving where it does make sense to use cruise control (not in a congested area) and somebody cuts you off? Does the cruise control suddenly try to slow down to like 30 MPH, inviting a rear-ending?
Oh I’m sorry, I though we were talking about being in
, but if you wish to ban things that make bad drivers worse we should take out the radio/CD/tape/mp3 player, vent and a/c controls should be automatic and not ajustable enroute, windows should stay closed when moving, and get rid of drive thru’s (and cup holders)
That is correct.
Not your average car, no… but there is no technological barrier to this. Might be pricey, though.
I should also point out that not all airplanes are equipped with sophisticated instrumentation, either. In fact, the one I was flying last weekend had less intrumentation than my Toyota Echo.
Yes - provide Joe can pony up about $6,000 for the training, is willing to study a little, and passes the checkride.
Actually, there is. At least around major hub airports.
I disagree. I drive on CC all the time. I take my foot off the gas and move it over closer to the brake pedal. My reaction time is thereby lowered because my foot has a shorter distance to travel to step on the brake pedal.
While this is one side of the issue, you can argue that less time is spent on looking at one’s speedometer, which allows more time to look at traffic/road/wildlife conditions.
I have less trouble with the idea of cruise control than I do electronic skid controls,traction controls, ABS,etc.
The auto industry has oversold the idea that any idiot can drive a car. “Don’t worry,you can’t skid. We won’t let you. And if you do something far stupider than we designed these systems for; we’ll inflate a nice ,soft balloon for your sorry ass to fall into.”
No wonder people follow too close, change lanes/pull away from stopsigns/ back out of driveways without looking , drive too fast for conditions. They don’t fear driving the way our folks taught us to.
I’ve rarely engaged ABS. I still tend to drive slower in bad weather because Dad taught me in the '60s, "You got no brakes in the wet."IMHO, driver’s ed should be taught on a flooded skidpad in a car with drum brakes all around and no ABS. And then lie to those kids(for their own good) and tell them that every car handles this way in rain,snow, and ice.
Cruise still requires vigilance. It reduces leg fatigue and allows you to put your foot closer to the brake pedal, but you still have to watch the road. In general, I like it.
Auto-pilot roads, however, are another matter.What if the road sensors experience a power bump and the guy in the big motorhome behind me doesn’t notice because he’s taking a bong hit or is getting a piece in the back bedroom?
I think part of the reason cruise control is so appealing to most folks is that they don’t enjoy driving their cars. I drove my Chrysler from CO to TN without cruise control, and didn’t mind it a bit, because I found the car fun to drive. (Mind you, the car doesn’t have cruise control, so I could have used it if I wanted to.)
My Pontiac has cruise control, and I use it whenever I can, because the car’s not fun to drive.
zenith brings up some good points, and really, I think that the US should follow the German model for getting licenses, etc. The average speeds on the Autobahn are way higher than on US interstates, and they have fewer wrecks than we do. Part of that can be attributed to better drivers training, the rest to better road design and maintence, as well as stricter vehicle regulations. I also have to wonder how the automated highways will deal with sudden road hazards like an 18-wheeler shredding a tire in front of you, or furniture falling out of the back of someone’s pick up.
While this may be true, another factor is some roads are downright boaring to drive, namely most interstates (who’s speed limit is set too low for that type of road).
I use cruise mainly on boring stretches of Interstate where my natural tendency would be to speed up to get the boring parts of the trip over with quickly. Giving myself over to automation has probably saved a lot of points on my license.
On interesting roads–hilly,curvy,etc., I take the cruise off.
In fact, cruise is a major annnoyance in hilly areas in that every system I’ve used has allowed a great deal of deceleration uphill before “flaring up” and overcorrecting. All of this “pumping” of the accelerator decreases gas mileage and probably stresses the car more than smooth, easy manual operations.
I have more trouble with this phenomenon in Chryslers and Fords, less with GMs, but I still take manual control of my Pontiac in hilly country.
I doubt that enough of the “hunting” tendencies of regular cruise have been ironed out of adaptive cruis. It doesn’t appeal to me at this present state of the art.