Well in a song by Status Quo called Little Me and You there is a line which says Cruise control the motorway It’s the freedom that I love and I want to sail away away away and I believe it is something that you set when you are on a motorway or freeway but do all cars have it and dies it help or only work at higher speeds? Is it something that prevents it going over a speed of only works at higher speeds in fact?
It’s a function to set, and have the car keep, a fixed speed. Means you can take your foot off the gas.
It is fairly ubiquitous these days, but used to be a lot more common, along with automatic gear boxes, in the US than in Europe.
I’ve always thought of cruise control as an American thing, but more and more European cars also get it - goes along with the European trend of moving towards automatic gearboxes, as opposed to stick shifts, which are still predominant here.
Myself I’ve driven with cruise control only once, but I found it really helps on long drives. Usage is easy: You drive at the desired speed, activate a switch, and the speed that you were going at that moment is locked in and maintained automatically, which means you can take your foot off the gas pedal. You can, of course, always override cruise control by accelerating or braking manually, but many times all you want to do is keep going at a constant speed.
Hampshire’s link explains all, but the short version is that cruise control is a system on the car that automatically manages the throttle to maintain a speed that’s been selected by the driver. This is great for reducing driver workload on long stretches of highway with light traffic, i.e. situations where you don’t need to frequently adjust your speed. It’s also helpful because it does a better job of maintaining steady speed than most drivers are able to do over long periods of time. If you’ve ever gotten frustrated with someone because you and they kept passing each other over and over again, it’s because one or both of you weren’t using cruise control and speeds kept varying.
In recent years some models feature “adaptive cruise control,” which adds sensors that watch for vehicles in front of you and automatically adjust your speed to maintain a safe following distance.
Some touring motorcycles also feature cruise control. This is really nice for giving your right wrist a break on long touring days.
It also lets you play fun games, like “how long can I go without touching the brake,” just using the up and down buttons on the cruise control.
Come on, admit it - I’m not the only one who does this…
Like many devices, some people (like me) love it, and some see it as the work of the Devil who wants to take control of the car away from them.
There is a slight danger with it though: we have all heard the apocryphal story about the motorhome driver who left the wheel to make coffee and complained that he assumed that the CC took over all of the driving. I find that I am reluctant to slow down as I catch up with a slower driver, hoping that he will pull over in time to let me get past. It’s not a big deal to slow down but I have on occasion, found myself dangerously close to the car in front who is doing 2mph less than me.
I’ve never been a huge fan of cruise control and often forget I even have it. However, this adaptive feature made me a believer. It’s wonderful. (I guess we don’t have wide open highways in the Seattle area)
I used to do that all the time, but about six months ago I got a car that has the adaptive cruise control where it slows down when approaching a slower car.
The Tesla’s also have adaptive cruise control, along with “autosteer” where the cameras attached to the computer allow it to (99% of the time) stay in the lane also. IIRC from ads, Nissan and Cadillac among others now have this feature. Like all computer stuff, it works great, far better than humans much of the time, but once in a while it can fail and human (adult) supervision is always a good idea.
Adaptive cruise control is becoming more ubiquitous, in newer models.
And it’s no surprise that it’d be more popular in the US than in Europe, because Americans drive longer distances than Europeans, and a greater proportion of it on freeways.
I just bought a 2020 proletariat-trim Honda Civic that has both the adaptive cruise control and what they call “lane keep assist” which is the same thing as your autosteer. I live in Southern Oregon and the LKA is essentially worthless on our ubiquitous winding roads that snake through the mountains, but when I have to drive up to Portland on I-5 it works marvelously. The only time it didn’t was when we got a light snowfall and the radar sensor in the front bumper was covered. Then the cruise control, automatic braking, and LKA simply shut down.
I have a 35 mile commute (well, I did…) and absolutely love cruise control. My Civic has a 6-speed manual and the cruise control doesn’t cancel when the clutch is depressed to upshift going up a hill, which is a very welcome feature. We have a 2006 Subaru Forester with a 5-speed and the cruise cancels if you depress the clutch even a fraction of an inch.
My first car was a 1975 VW bus. I drove that thing all over the Pac NW in the summer of 1998. I can’t imagine doing that today in any vehicle that didn’t have crusie control. It really is a godsend.
The problem with adaptive cruise control is that it works too well. The slowing down is imperceptible. Suddenly you’ll realize that you’re driving ten mph below the speed limit because that’s what the car in front of you is doing. Why have cruise control if some other car is controlling your speed?
If you’re paying attention to your speed - which you should be doing - it’s far better than having to brake to cut off the cruise, accelerate around, and slow to re-enter cruise smoothly. Just shift lanes and the new controls do it all for you without a jolt.
Why do you need to upshift when going up a hill? But do the more advanced/autonomous cruise controls with lane following in general successfully shift and/or brake when cornering, downhill as well as up, in response to snow and ice, etc?
And because cruise control is better suited to a car with an automatic transmission rather than a manual. A car with an automatic can downshift on hills to maintain the speed, a manual can’t without the driver doing it, you know, manually…
Automatics are more common in the US than in Europe.
Not quite the same thing, all lane assist does is nudge you away from whatever lane marker you’re crossing (if the turn signal is not active. It does not attempt to center you and can weave from lane marker to lane marker.
Experiencing it on my wife’s new Hyundai, might be helpful on long trips with little traffic. Not all that helpful in heavy traffic situations as I really hope nobody depends upon that feature to avoid hitting the large truck in the lane next to you.
On the other hand, adaptive cruise control is a gift from heaven.
It’s been around for a pretty long time, although it was an option and not a built-in feature for a lot of that time, mostly available on higher-end luxury cars; and the actual cars you’d see on the dealers’ lots would seldom have it, it would be a special-order item.
The owner’s manual of my Dad’s 1967 Pontiac Executive described it, so it was something you could have by 1967. Here are replacement parts for it (slightly different model but same idea).
Modern cruise control is excellent at keeping your speed steady, unless there is a car in front of you. It is not designed for - and should never be used in - conditions where being sensitive to the need of quickly changing speeds is predominant. If you’re in a driving snow storm you should be in control. If you’re going down a very steep hill you wouldn’t want to keep your speed constant in the first place. If you’re on a narrow, twisty, hilly two-lane highway, cruise control is not a good idea.
And Europeans who don’t like to drive have more alternatives available (railways, mostly). Americans who don’t like to drive, still have to drive.